| short | long | example … | … means |
| . | self::node() (note: long and short are not exactly equivalent) |
me, whatever I happen to be (element, attribute, comment, processing instruction, document root, or even text) | |
| element-name | child::element-name | <xsl:apply-templates select="said"> | my said children |
| * | child::* | <xsl:template match="*"> | match each child element |
| //element-name | descendant::element-name (note: long and short are not exactly equivalent) |
<xsl:template match="body//div"> | the div descendants of body (i.e., all div elements, except those that are somewhere inside a front or back) |
| .. | parent::node() | my parent, whatever it happens to be (element or root) | |
| parent::element-name | <xsl:if test="parent::author"> <!-- stuff --> </xsl:if> |
do “stuff” iff my parent is an author | |
| ancestor::element-name | <xsl:apply-templates select="ancestor::listPerson/head"> | process my ancestor listPersons’ headings | |
| ancestor::* | <xsl:apply-templates select="ancestor::*"> | all my ancestors | |
| following::element-name | <xsl:apply-templates select="following::sic"> | Process sics after me (e.g., to make a list of errors left to go) | |
| following-sibling::element-name | <xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::l"> | the l children of my parent that come after me (i.e., the rest of the stanza) | |
| preceding::element-name | <xsl:value-of select="count( preceding::pb )"> | what page # I’m on | |
| preceding-sibling::element-name | <xsl:apply-templates select="preceding-sibling::head"> | the head children of my parent that come before me | |
| @attribute-name | attribute::attribute-name | <xsl:template match="@rend"> | handle rend attributes |
| @* | attribute::* | <xsl:apply-templates select="@*"> | process all of my attributes |