XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions

The list on this page indicates which functions are implemented in this Saxon release, and any restrictions in the current implementation.

It includes both the core functions defined in XPath 2.0, and the additional functions defined in the XSLT 2.0 specification.

Index

fn:abs fn:adjust-date-to-timezone fn:adjust-date-to-timezone fn:adjust-dateTime-to-timezone fn:adjust-dateTime-to-timezone fn:adjust-time-to-timezone fn:adjust-time-to-timezone fn:avg fn:base-uri fn:base-uri fn:boolean fn:ceiling fn:codepoints-to-string fn:collection fn:compare fn:compare fn:concat fn:contains fn:contains fn:context-item fn:count xslt:current fn:current-date fn:current-dateTime xslt:current-group xslt:current-grouping-key fn:current-time fn:data fn:deep-equal fn:deep-equal fn:default-collation fn:distinct-nodes fn:distinct-values fn:distinct-values fn:doc xslt:document xslt:document fn:document-uri xslt:element-available fn:empty fn:ends-with fn:ends-with fn:error fn:error fn:escape-uri fn:exactly-one fn:exists fn:expanded-QName fn:false fn:floor xslt:format-date xslt:format-date xslt:format-dateTime xslt:format-dateTime xslt:format-number xslt:format-number xslt:format-time xslt:format-time xslt:function-available xslt:generate-id xslt:generate-id fn:get-day-from-date fn:get-day-from-dateTime fn:get-days-from-dayTimeDuration fn:get-hours-from-dateTime fn:get-hours-from-dayTimeDuration fn:get-hours-from-time fn:get-in-scope-prefixes fn:get-local-name-from-QName fn:get-minutes-from-dateTime fn:get-minutes-from-dayTimeDuration fn:get-minutes-from-time fn:get-month-from-date fn:get-month-from-dateTime fn:get-months-from-yearMonthDuration fn:get-namespace-from-QName fn:get-namespace-uri-for-prefix fn:get-seconds-from-dateTime fn:get-seconds-from-dayTimeDuration fn:get-seconds-from-time fn:get-timezone-from-date fn:get-timezone-from-dateTime fn:get-timezone-from-time fn:get-year-from-date fn:get-year-from-dateTime fn:get-years-from-yearMonthDuration fn:id fn:idref fn:implicit-timezone fn:index-of fn:index-of fn:input fn:insert-before fn:item-at xslt:key fn:lang fn:last fn:local-name fn:local-name fn:lower-case fn:matches fn:matches fn:max fn:max fn:min fn:min fn:name fn:name fn:namespace-uri fn:namespace-uri fn:node-kind fn:node-name fn:normalize-space fn:normalize-space fn:normalize-unicode fn:normalize-unicode fn:not fn:number fn:number fn:one-or-more fn:position xslt:regex-group fn:remove fn:replace fn:replace fn:resolve-QName fn:resolve-uri fn:resolve-uri fn:sum fn:root fn:root fn:round fn:round-half-to-even fn:round-half-to-even fn:sequence-node-identical fn:starts-with fn:starts-with fn:string fn:string fn:string-join fn:string-length fn:string-length fn:string-pad fn:string-to-codepoints fn:subsequence fn:subsequence fn:substring fn:substring fn:substring-after fn:substring-after fn:substring-before fn:substring-before fn:subtract-dateTimes-yielding-dayTimeDuration fn:subtract-dateTimes-yielding-yearMonthDuration fn:sum xslt:system-property fn:tokenize fn:tokenize fn:trace fn:translate fn:true xslt:unparsed-entity-uri xslt:unparsed-entity-public-id xslt:unparsed-text xslt:unparsed-text fn:unordered fn:upper-case fn:zero-or-one

Function Definitions

fn:abs

Function signature

$srcval	numeric ?
Result	numeric ?

Returns the absolute value of a given number. Returns the same type as the supplied argument.

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.6.1.

fn:adjust-date-to-timezone

Function signature

$srcval	xs:date ?
Result	xs:date ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.8

fn:adjust-date-to-timezone

Function signature

$srcval	xs:date ?
$timezone	xdt:dayTimeDuration
Result	xs:date ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.8

fn:adjust-dateTime-to-timezone

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xs:dateTime ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.8

fn:adjust-dateTime-to-timezone

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
$timezone	xdt:dayTimeDuration
Result	xs:dateTime ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.8

fn:adjust-time-to-timezone

Function signature

$srcval	xs:time ?
Result	xs:time ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.8

fn:adjust-time-to-timezone

Function signature

$srcval	xs:time ?
$timezone	xdt:dayTimeDuration
Result	xs:time ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.8

fn:avg

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:anyAtomicType *
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType ?

Returns the average of a set of numbers

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.4 to return the same type as the argument, when appropriate. (For a set of integers, the result is a double). Not yet implemented for other addable types, e.g. duration.

fn:base-uri

Function signature

Result

xs:string ?

Returns the base URI of the static context

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:base-uri

Function signature

$srcval	node()
Result	xs:string ?

Returns the base URI of a given node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:boolean

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	xs:boolean

Obtains the effective boolean value of any expression

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:ceiling

Function signature

$srcval	numeric ?
Result	numeric ?

Rounds a value towards positive infinity

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.4 to return the same type as the supplied argument.

fn:codepoints-to-string

Function signature

$codes	xs:integer *
Result	xs:string

Converts a sequence of integers representing Unicode characters to the corresponding string

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. The error checking is incomplete (there is no check that the integers in the supplied sequence are legal XML characters).

fn:collection

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string
Result	node() *

Loads an external collection of nodes identified by the URI of the collection

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. In the Saxon implementation, the argument is interpreted as the URI of an XML catalogue document containing the URIs of the documents that make up the collection. An example of a catalogue is:

<collection>
  <doc href="doc1.xml"/>
  <doc href="doc2.xml"/>
  <doc href="doc3.xml"/>
</collection>

fn:compare

Function signature

$comparand1	xs:string ?
$comparand2	xs:string ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Compares two strings using the default collation

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:compare

Function signature

$comparand1	xs:string ?
$comparand2	xs:string ?
$collation	xs:string
Result	xs:integer ?

Compares two strings using a specified collation

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:concat

Function signature

$arg1	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Concatenates the string-values of the arguments into a single string

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:contains

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
Result	xs:boolean ?

Returns true if the second string is a substring of the first

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:contains

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
$collation	xs:string
Result	xs:boolean ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:context-item

Function signature

Result

item() ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

Removed in Saxon 7.8

fn:count

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	xs:integer

Counts the number of items in a sequence

XPath 2.0 Specification

xslt:current

Function signature

Result

item() ?

Returns the item that was the current item supplied on entry to the XPath expression

XSLT 2.0 Specification

fn:current-date

Function signature

Result

xs:date

Returns the current date

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.8 to return a date in the local timezone.

fn:current-dateTime

Function signature

Result

xs:dateTime

Returns the current date and time

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.8 to return a date/time in the local timezone.

xslt:current-group

Function signature

Result

item() *

Returns the contents of the current group selected by xsl:for-each-group

XSLT 2.0 Specification

xslt:current-grouping-key

Function signature

Result

xdt:anyAtomicType

Returns the value that is the grouping key of the current group selected by xsl:for-each-group

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.6.5

fn:current-time

Function signature

Result

xs:time

Returns the current time

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.8 to return a time in the local timezone.

fn:data

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType *

Returns the result of atomizing the supplied sequence

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:deep-equal

Function signature

$operand1	item() *
$operand2	item() *
Result	xs:boolean

Compares two sequences for deep equality: the names and contents must be the same, but nodes need not have the same identity.

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:deep-equal

Function signature

$operand1	item() *
$operand2	item() *
$collation	string
Result	xs:boolean

Compares two sequences for deep equality; string values are compared using the named collation; nodes are compared for deep equality of names and content.

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:default-collation

Function signature

Result

xs:string

Returns the name of the default collation

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. In Saxon this always returns a value: if no default collation has been specified explicitly, it returns the URI of the code-point collation. Note, the May 2003 draft still returns an anyURI, though elsewhere collations are now represented by a string.

fn:distinct-nodes

Function signature

$srcval	node() *
Result	node() *

Eliminates nodes with duplicate values

XPath 2.0 Specification

Removed in Saxon 7.8

fn:distinct-values

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:anyAtomicType *
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType *

Returns the set of distinct values present in a given sequence

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:distinct-values

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:anyAtomicType *
$collation	string
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType *

Returns the set of distinct values present in a given sequence, comparing strings using a named collation.

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:doc

Function signature

$uri	string ?
Result	document-node() ?

Loads a document identified by its URI

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.6

xslt:document

Function signature

$uri	item *
Result	node() *

Loads one or more documents identified by their URIs

XSLT 2.0 Specification

xslt:document

Function signature

$uri	item *
$base	node() *
Result	node() *

Loads one or more documents identified by their URIs, using the base URI of the node given in the second argument to resolve any relative URIs

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Note: Check the type of the second argument against the latest spec.

fn:document-uri

Function signature

$srcval	node()
Result	string ?

Returns the URI of a document

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: The function is supported, though not strictly according to the spec. It is defined only for document nodes (as specified in the data model), and the URI returned is not guaranteed to be absolute, and is not guaranteed to be capable of retrieving the document using the document function (for example, a value is returned for a temporary tree).

xslt:element-available

Function signature

$element	xs:string
Result	xs:boolean

Determines whether a particular instruction (typically, an extension element) is available in the context

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Implemented. There is a restriction, namely that if the argument value is not a compile-time constant, then the function has no information about the names of user-defined extension elements, so it will return false if the name of such an element is supplied.

fn:empty

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	xs:boolean

Returns true if the given sequence is empty

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:ends-with

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
Result	xs:boolean ?

Returns true if the first string ends with the second string

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:ends-with

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
$collation	xs:string
Result	xs:boolean ?

Returns true if the first string ends with the second string, when compared using the named collation

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:error

Function signature

Result

Raises an error.

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:error

Function signature

$srcval	item() ?
Result

Raises an error. The string value of the supplied item is used as the error message.

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:escape-uri

Function signature

$uri-part	xs:string
$escape-reserved	xs:boolean
Result	string

Applies the %HH escaping convention to a URI

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:exactly-one

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	item() ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:exists

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	xs:boolean

Returns true if the given sequence is not empty

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:expanded-QName

Function signature

$paramURI	xs:string
$paramLocal	xs:string
Result	xs:QName

Constructs a QName value from a URI and local name

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:false

Function signature

Result

xs:boolean

Returns the boolean value false

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:floor

Function signature

$srcval	numeric ?
Result	numeric ?

Rounds a number towards minus infinity

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.4 to return the same type as the supplied argument.

xslt:format-date

Function signature

$value	xs:date ?
$picture	xs:string
$date-format-name	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Formats a date

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Supported with limitations. The third argument is ignored, the function always formats the date for the current locale. Alphabetic forms of numbers (including ordinals) are not at present localized.

xslt:format-date

Function signature

$value	xs:date ?
$picture	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Formats a date

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Supported with limitations. The function always formats the date for the current locale. Alphabetic forms of numbers (including ordinals) are not at present localized.

xslt:format-dateTime

Function signature

$value	xs:dateTime ?
$picture	xs:string
$date-format-name	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Formats a dateTime

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Supported with limitations. The third argument is ignored, the function always formats the date for the current locale. Alphabetic forms of numbers (including ordinals) are not at present localized.

xslt:format-dateTime

Function signature

$value	xs:dateTime ?
$picture	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Formats a dateTime

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Supported with limitations. The function always formats the date for the current locale. Alphabetic forms of numbers (including ordinals) are not at present localized.

xslt:format-number

Function signature

$value	xs:double
$picture	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Formats a number as specified by a picture string, using the default decimal format

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.4.1 to use the new XSLT 2.0 specification. This creates slight incompatibilities from the previous version, which remains available under the name format-number-1.0(). There is one known restriction: characters such as the decimal-separator are restricted to be in the Unicode BMP, i.e. below Unicode 0xFFFF. The current implementation does not attempt to cache or precompile the picture string. Also it does not detect the error that occurs when the same character is used in more than one role. Error checking has not been thoroughly tested.

xslt:format-number

Function signature

$value	xs:double
$picture	xs:string
$decimal-format	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Formats a number as specified by a picture string, using a named decimal format

XSLT 2.0 Specification

See two-argument version of format-number().

xslt:format-time

Function signature

$value	xs:time ?
$picture	xs:string
$date-format-name	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Formats a time

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Supported with limitations. The third argument is ignored, the function always formats the time for the current locale. Alphabetic forms of numbers (including ordinals) are not at present localized.

xslt:format-time

Function signature

$value	xs:time ?
$picture	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Formats a time

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Supported with limitations. The function always formats the date for the current locale. Alphabetic forms of numbers (including ordinals) are not at present localized.

xslt:function-available

Function signature

$function	xs:string
Result	xs:boolean

Determines whether a particular function is available in the context

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Implemented. There is a restriction, namely that if the argument value is not a compile-time constant, then the function has no information about the names of stylesheet functions, so it will return false if the name of a stylesheet function is supplied.

xslt:generate-id

Function signature

Result

xs:string

Returns a generated unique identifier of the context node

XSLT 2.0 Specification

xslt:generate-id

Function signature

$srcval	node() ?
Result	xs:string

Returns a generated unique identifier of a given node

XSLT 2.0 Specification

fn:get-day-from-date

Function signature

$srcval	xs:date ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the day component of a date value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-day-from-dateTime

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the day component of a dateTime value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-days-from-dayTimeDuration

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:dayTimeDuration ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the days component of a dayTimeDuration value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-hours-from-dateTime

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the hour component of a dateTime value

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented; but currently returns the local time value, not the normalized time value.

fn:get-hours-from-dayTimeDuration

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:dayTimeDuration ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the hours component of a dayTimeDuration value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-hours-from-time

Function signature

$srcval	xs:time ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the hours component of a time value

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented; but currently returns the local time value, not the normalized time value.

fn:get-in-scope-prefixes

Function signature

$element	element()
Result	xs:string *

Returns the names of the namespaces that are in scope for an element

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Name changed in 7.8 from get-in-scope-namespaces().

fn:get-local-name-from-QName

Function signature

$srcval	xs:QName ?
Result	string ?

Extracts the local name component of a QName value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-minutes-from-dateTime

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the minutes component of a dateTime value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-minutes-from-dayTimeDuration

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:dayTimeDuration ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the minutes component of a dayTimeDuration value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-minutes-from-time

Function signature

$srcval	xs:time ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the minutes component of a time value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-month-from-date

Function signature

$srcval	xs:date ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the month component of a date value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-month-from-dateTime

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the month component of a dateTime value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-months-from-yearMonthDuration

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:yearMonthDuration ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the months component of a yearMonthDuration value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-namespace-from-QName

Function signature

$srcval	xs:QName ?
Result	string ?

Extracts the namespace URI component of a QName value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-namespace-uri-for-prefix

Function signature

$element	element()
$prefix	xs:string ?
Result	string ?

Returns the namespace URI corresponding to a given prefix, using the namespaces that are in scope for a given element

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented.

fn:get-seconds-from-dateTime

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the seconds component of a dateTime value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-seconds-from-dayTimeDuration

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:dayTimeDuration ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the seconds component of a dayTimeDuration value

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Return type should be decimal, not integer.

fn:get-seconds-from-time

Function signature

$srcval	xs:time ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the seconds component of a time value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-timezone-from-date

Function signature

$srcval	xs:date ?
Result	xdt:dayTimeDuration ?

Extracts the timezone component of a date value

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.8 to return dayTimeDuration rather than string.

fn:get-timezone-from-dateTime

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xdt:dayTimeDuration ?

Extracts the timezone component of a dateTime value

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.8 to return dayTimeDuration rather than string.

fn:get-timezone-from-time

Function signature

$srcval	xs:time ?
Result	xdt:dayTimeDuration ?

Extracts the timezone component of a time value

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.8 to return dayTimeDuration rather than string.

fn:get-year-from-date

Function signature

$srcval	xs:date ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the year component of a date value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-year-from-dateTime

Function signature

$srcval	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the year component of a dateTime value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:get-years-from-yearMonthDuration

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:yearMonthDuration ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Extracts the years component of a yearMonthDuration value

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:id

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string *
Result	element() *

Finds the elements with given ID attribute values

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: Implemented according to the XPath 1.0 specification

fn:idref

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string *
Result	node() *

Finds the elements that link to the element with a given ID value

XPath 2.0 Specification

** Not yet implemented **

fn:implicit-timezone

Function signature

Result

xdt:dayTimeDuration

Returns the implicit timezone

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.8

fn:index-of

Function signature

$seqParam	xdt:anyAtomicType *
$srchParam	xdt:anyAtomicType
Result	xs:integer *

Finds the positions of items in a sequence that match the second argument

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented.

fn:index-of

Function signature

$seqParam	xdt:anyAtomicType *
$srchParam	xdt:anyAtomicType
$collation	xs:string
Result	xs:integer *

Finds the positions of items in a sequence that match the second argument, using a named collation for the comparison

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented.

fn:input

Function signature

Result

node() *

Returns the sequence of nodes established by the calling environment as the current input collection

XPath 2.0 Specification

Removed in Saxon 7.8

Note: This implementation of the input() function is very simple. If the parameter {http://saxon.sf.net/}input has been supplied to the transformation, the function returns the value of this parameter. This must be a node sequence - which means it cannot be supplied from the command line. If no such parameter has been supplied, it returns the root of the principal source document (the document containing the node that was matched on entry to the transformation).

fn:insert-before

Function signature

$target	item() *
$position	xs:integer
$inserts	item() *
Result	item() *

Insert an item into a sequence

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.4 to reflect the latest WD which changes the name from insert to insert-before, and inserts the new items before the selected position, not after it as previously. Changed in 7.8 to allow the insert position to be beyond the end of the original sequence (which causes the new sequence to be appended).

fn:item-at

Function signature

$seqParam	item() *
$posParam	xs:integer
Result	item() ?

Return the item at a given position in a sequence

XPath 2.0 Specification

Removed in Saxon 7.8

xslt:key

Function signature

$key-name	xs:string
$key-value	xdt:anyAtomicType *
Result	node() *

Returns the nodes identified by a named key declaration in the stylesheet.

XSLT 2.0 Specification

fn:lang

Function signature

$testlang	xs:string *
Result	xs:boolean

Returns true if the xml:lang value for the context node matches the given language

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:last

Function signature

Result

xs:integer

Returns the context size (the size of the sequence of items currently being processed)

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:local-name

Function signature

Result

xs:string

Returns the local part of the name of the context node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:local-name

Function signature

$srcval	node() ?
Result	xs:string

Returns the local part of the name of a given node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:lower-case

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string ?
Result	xs:string ?

Translates characters in a string to lower case

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:matches

Function signature

$input	xs:string ?
$pattern	xs:string
Result	xs:boolean ?

Returns true if the given string matches the given regular expression

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: The regular expression syntax supported in Saxon is that of JDK 1.4.

fn:matches

Function signature

$input	xs:string ?
$pattern	xs:string
$flags	xs:string
Result	xs:boolean ?

Returns true if the given string matches the given regular expression, specifying flags to control the way pattern matching is performed

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: The regular expression syntax supported in Saxon is that of JDK 1.4. The "i" flag (for case insensitive matching) is supported from Saxon 7.4.1.

fn:max

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:anyAtomicType *
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType ?

Returns the highest value in a sequence of comparable items

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.4 to support any comparable type. Changed in 7.8 to convert untyped Atomic values to xs:double, and to return NaN if the input sequence contains a NaN.

fn:max

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:anyAtomicType *
$collation	xs:string
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType ?

Returns the highest value in a sequence of strings, using a specified collation to perform the comparisons

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in 7.4. Changed in 7.8 to convert untyped Atomic values to xs:double, and to return NaN if the input sequence contains a NaN.

fn:min

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:anyAtomicType *
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType ?

Returns the lowest value in a sequence of comparable items

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.4 to support any comparable type. Changed in 7.8 to convert untyped Atomic values to xs:double, and to return NaN if the input sequence contains a NaN.

fn:min

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:anyAtomicType *
$collation	xs:string
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType ?

Returns the lowest value in a sequence of strings, using a specified collation to perform the comparisons

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in 7.4. Changed in 7.8 to convert untyped Atomic values to xs:double, and to return NaN if the input sequence contains a NaN.

fn:name

Function signature

Result

xs:string

Returns the name of the context node, as a string in the lexical form of a QName

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:name

Function signature

$srcval	node() ?
Result	xs:string

Returns the name of a given node, as a string in the lexical form of a QName

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:namespace-uri

Function signature

Result

xs:string

Returns the namespace URI of the name of the context node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:namespace-uri

Function signature

$srcval	node() ?
Result	xs:string

Returns the namespace URI of the name of a given node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:node-kind

Function signature

$srcval	node()
Result	xs:string

Identifies what kind of node the argument is, as a string, for example "element" or "attribute"

XPath 2.0 Specification

Removed in Saxon 7.8

fn:node-name

Function signature

$srcval	node()
Result	xs:QName ?

Returns the name of the given node, as a QName value (that is, a namespace URI plus local name)

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:normalize-space

Function signature

Result

xs:string ?

Eliminates redundant spaces from the string value of the context node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:normalize-space

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string ?
Result	xs:string ?

Eliminates redundant spaces from a string

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:normalize-unicode

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string ?
Result	xs:string ?

Converts a string to Unicode normalized form NFC by modifying the way in which combining characters are represented

XPath 2.0 Specification

** Not yet implemented **

fn:normalize-unicode

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string ?
$normalizationForm	xs:string
Result	xs:string ?

Converts a string to a given Unicode normalized form by modifying the way in which combining characters are represented

XPath 2.0 Specification

** Not yet implemented **

fn:not

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	xs:boolean

Returns true if the effective boolean value of the argument is false, and vice versa

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:number

Function signature

Result

xs:double

Converts the string value of the context node to a number

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: Saxon 7.4 implements some incompatible changes to this function defined in XPath 2.0. When given an empty sequence as the argument, the number function now returns an empty sequence, rather than NaN. When given a value that is not a valid number, it raises an error rather than returning NaN. The strings "INF" and "-INF" are recognized as representations of positive and negative infinity.

fn:number

Function signature

$srcval	item() ?
Result	xs:double

Converts the string value of the given node to a number

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: Implementation follows the XPath 1.0 specification. Changed in 7.4 so that if the argument is the empty sequence, the result is the empty sequence - this causes some backwards compatibility problems.

fn:one-or-more

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	item() ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:position

Function signature

Result

xs:integer

Returns the context position (that is, the position of the context item in the sequence currenly being processed)

XPath 2.0 Specification

xslt:regex-group

Function signature

$groupNumber	xs:integer
Result	xs:string

Returns the contents of the substring that matched the n'th subexpression in a regular expression processed using xsl:analyze-string

XSLT 2.0 Specification

fn:remove

Function signature

$target	item() *
$position	xs:integer
Result	item() *

Removes the item at a given position in a sequence

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:replace

Function signature

$input	xs:string ?
$pattern	xs:string
$replacement	xs:string
Result	xs:string ?

Replaces sequences of characters within a string that match a given regular expression

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: The regular expression syntax supported in Saxon is that of JDK 1.4.

fn:replace

Function signature

$input	xs:string ?
$pattern	xs:string
$replacement	xs:string
$flags	xs:string
Result	xs:string ?

Replaces sequences of characters within a string that match a given regular expression, specifying flags to control the way the regular expression is matched

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: The regular expression syntax supported in Saxon is that of JDK 1.4. The "i" flag (for case insensitive matching) is supported from Saxon 7.4.1.

fn:resolve-QName

Function signature

$qname	xs:string
$element	element()
Result	xs:QName

Expands a lexical QName using the in-scope namespaces from the given element

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:resolve-uri

Function signature

$relative	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Resolves a relative URI against the base URI from the static context

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:resolve-uri

Function signature

$relative	xs:string
$base	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Resolves a relative URI against a given base URI

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: Current WD still describes the second argument as having type xs:anyURI

fn:sum

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	item() *

Reverses the order of the items in the input sequence.

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented in Saxon 7.8

fn:root

Function signature

Result

node()

Returns the root node (document node) of the tree containing the context node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:root

Function signature

$srcval	node()
Result	node()

Returns the root node (document node) of the tree containing the given node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:round

Function signature

$srcval	numeric ?
Result	numeric ?

Rounds a numeric value to the nearest whole number, rounding x.5 towards positive infinity.

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed in 7.4 to return the same type as the supplied argument.

fn:round-half-to-even

Function signature

$srcval	numeric ?
Result	numeric ?

Rounds a numeric value to the nearest whole number, rounding x.5 towards the nearest even number.

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:round-half-to-even

Function signature

$srcval	numeric ?
$precision	xs:integer
Result	numeric ?

Rounds a numeric value to the nearest integer multiple of 10 the power of minus precision, rounding x.5 towards the nearest number whose last digit is even.

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: In the case of doubles and floats, rounding errors may occur giving unexpected effects.

fn:sequence-node-identical

Function signature

$parameter1	node() *
$parameter2	node() *
Result	xs:boolean ?

Tests whether two sequences contain identical nodes in identical positions

XPath 2.0 Specification

Removed in Saxon 7.8

fn:starts-with

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
Result	xs:boolean ?

Tests whether one string starts with another string

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:starts-with

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
$collation	xs:string
Result	xs:boolean ?

Tests whether one string starts with another string, using the given collation for comparison

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:string

Function signature

Result

xs:string

Returns the string value of the context node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:string

Function signature

$srcval	item() ?
Result	xs:string

Returns the string value of the argument. Saxon implements the argument as type item()* rather than item()?

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:string-join

Function signature

$sequence	xs:string *
$separator	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Concatenates all the strings in the given sequence, separated by the given separator

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:string-length

Function signature

Result

xs:integer ?

Returns the number of characters in the string value of the context node

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:string-length

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string ?
Result	xs:integer ?

Returns the number of characters in the given string

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:string-pad

Function signature

$padString	xs:string ?
$padCount	xs:integer
Result	xs:string ?

Returns a string obtained by concatenating $padCount occurrences of $padString

XPath 2.0 Specification

Removed in Saxon 7.8

fn:string-to-codepoints

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string
Result	xs:integer *

Returns a sequence of integers representing the Unicode codepoints of the characters in the supplied string

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:subsequence

Function signature

$sourceSeq	item() *
$startingLoc	xs:double
Result	item() *

Returns those items in the given sequence from the given starting position to the end of the sequence

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented, currently requires integer argument

Note: Non-integer values, negative values etc for the second argument may not work as defined in the XPath specification.

fn:subsequence

Function signature

$sourceSeq	item() *
$startingLoc	xs:double
$length	xs:double
Result	item() *

Returns those items in the given sequence from the given starting position up to the position implied by the given length

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented, currently requires integer arguments

Note: Non-integer values, negative values etc for the second or third argument may not work as defined in the XPath specification.

fn:substring

Function signature

$sourceString	xs:string ?
$startingLoc	xs:double
Result	xs:string ?

Returns a substring of a given string starting at the given starting position and continuing to the end of the string

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:substring

Function signature

$sourceString	xs:string ?
$startingLoc	xs:double
$length	xs:double
Result	xs:string ?

Returns a subtring of a given string, starting at a given position and continuing up to a given length

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:substring-after

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
Result	xs:string ?

Returns that part of the given input string that occurs after the first occurrence of the string given in $operand2

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:substring-after

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
$collation	xs:string
Result	xs:string ?

Returns that part of the given input string that occurs after the first occurrence of the string given in $operand2, using the given collation to compare strings

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:substring-before

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
Result	xs:string ?

Returns that part of the given input string that occurs before the first occurrence of the string given in $operand2

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:substring-before

Function signature

$operand1	xs:string ?
$operand2	xs:string ?
$collation	xs:string
Result	xs:string ?

Returns that part of the given input string that occurs before the first occurrence of the string given in $operand2, using the given collation to compare strings

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:subtract-dateTimes-yielding-dayTimeDuration

Function signature

$operand1	xs:dateTime ?
$operand2	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xdt:dayTimeDuration ?

Returns the difference between two dateTimes as a dayTimeDuration

XPath 2.0 Specification

** Not yet implemented **

fn:subtract-dateTimes-yielding-yearMonthDuration

Function signature

$operand1	xs:dateTime ?
$operand2	xs:dateTime ?
Result	xdt:yearMonthDuration ?

Returns the difference between two dateTimes as a yearMonthDuration

XPath 2.0 Specification

** Not yet implemented **

fn:sum

Function signature

$srcval	xdt:anyAtomicType *
Result	xdt:anyAtomicType ?

Returns the total of a sequence of numbers

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. In 7.4, works on all numeric types and returns the same type as the arguments. Not implemented for other addable types, e.g. duration. The new optional second parameter is not implemented. Changed in 7.8 to return integer 0 for an empty sequence, rather than double 0.0.

xslt:system-property

Function signature

$propertyName	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Returns the value of a system property

XSLT 2.0 Specification

fn:tokenize

Function signature

$input	xs:string ?
$pattern	xs:string
Result	xs:string *

Returns a sequence of strings formed by breaking the input string at any substring that matches the given regular expression

XPath 2.0 Specification

Implemented. The facility to split a string into its individual characters by supplying a regex that matches a zero-length string is newly implemented in Saxon 7.7.

Note: The regular expression syntax supported in Saxon is that of JDK 1.4

fn:tokenize

Function signature

$input	xs:string ?
$pattern	xs:string
$flags	xs:string
Result	xs:string *?

Returns a sequence of strings formed by breaking the input string at any substring that matches the given regular expression, using flags to control the way regular expression matching is performed

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: The regular expression syntax supported in Saxon is that of JDK 1.4. The "i" flag (for case insensitive matching) is supported from Saxon 7.4.1.

fn:trace

Function signature

$value	item() *
$label	xs:string
Result	item() *

Returns the value of the first argument after outputting a diagnostic message

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: The Saxon implementation outputs the value of each item in a sequence as it is evaluated (except when the sequence is empty, in which case it outputs "empty sequence" at the start). Atomic values are output by converting them to a string, nodes by calling getPath() to generate a path expression to the node. With complex expressions the order of evaluation may be rather different from the expected order. The trace output is directed to System.err, this may be redirected by using "2>log.txt" on the command line.

fn:translate

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string ?
$mapString	xs:string ?
$transString	xs:string ?
Result	xs:string ?

Returns a string formed by replacing individual characters that appear in the second argument with the characters that appear at the corresponding position in the third argument

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:true

Function signature

Result

xs:boolean

Return the boolean value true

XPath 2.0 Specification

xslt:unparsed-entity-uri

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Return the system ID of an unparsed entity, given its name

XSLT 2.0 Specification

xslt:unparsed-entity-public-id

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Return the public ID of an unparsed entity, given its name

XSLT 2.0 Specification

xslt:unparsed-text

Function signature

$uri	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Returns the contents of an external text file, given its URI and encoding

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Not implemented. The encoding parameter is currently mandatory.

xslt:unparsed-text

Function signature

$uri	xs:string
$encoding	xs:string
Result	xs:string

Returns the contents of an external text file, given its URI and encoding

XSLT 2.0 Specification

Implemented. Changed at 7.5 so it no longer processes multiple URIs ina single call.

fn:unordered

Function signature

$sequence	item() *
Result	item() *

Returns a random permutation of its argument

XPath 2.0 Specification

Note: In practice the only important case where this function has any effect in the Saxon implementation is where the sequence supplied as argument is a Step using a reverse axis: for example, unordered(ancestor::*) returns the ancestors in reverse document order. But applications should not rely on the actual order; the function is intended to be used by applications that do not care about the order of the results.

fn:upper-case

Function signature

$srcval	xs:string ?
Result	xs:string ?

Converts a string to upper case

XPath 2.0 Specification

fn:zero-or-one

Function signature

$srcval	item() *
Result	item() ?

XPath 2.0 Specification

Michael H. Kay
20 May 2003