Variables

xsl:variable

# This syntax is the safer of the two when assigning a string value
<xsl:variable name="name">text</name>

<xsl:variable name="name" [select="expr"]/>

• Declares a variable
• If the select expression is a string, it must be nested in quotes ( "'...'", '"..."' ) so that it's not treated as an XPath expression

• Referencing the variable: $name
• Referencing the variable outside of an XSLT tag: {$name}
  
• Placing curly braces around a variable causes it to be treated as an XPath expression, rather than as a string literal
  

<xsl:variable name="name" select="'Harry'"/>

<xsl:value-of select="$name"/>

<a href="{$url}">text</a>

xsl:param

<xsl:param name="name" [select="expr"]>...</xsl:param>

• Declares a parameter
• The select attribute specifies the default value for the parameter

• Referencing the parameter: $name
• Referencing the parameter outside of an XSLT tag: {$name}
• Placing curly braces around a parameter causes it to be treated as an XPath expression, rather than as a string literal

<xsl:value-of select="$url"/>

<a href="{$url}">text</a

xsl:with-param

<xsl:with-param name="name" [select="expr"]>...</xsl:with-param>

• Defines the value of a parameter to be passed into a template
• The name attribute must match a name in an <xsl:param> element