Is there an XSLT name-of element?

Question

In XSLT there is the

to get the value of an element, but is there something to select the tag-n

Answer 1

Nobody did point the subtle difference in the semantics of the functions name() and local-name().

• name(someNode) returns the full name of the node, and that includes the prefix and colon in case the node is an element or an attribute.
• local-name(someNode) returns only the local name of the node, and that doesn't include the prefix and colon in case the node is an element or an attribute.

Therefore, in situations where a name may belong to two different namespaces, one must use the name() function in order for these names to be still distinguished.

And, BTW, it is possible to specify both functions without any argument:

name() is an abbreviation for name(.)

local-name() is an abbreviation for local-name(.)

Finally, do remember that not only elements and attributes have names, these two functions can also be used on PIs and on these they are identical).