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<h1>xsl:variable</h1>
<p>The <code>xsl:variable</code> element is used to declare a variable and give it a value. If it appears at the
top level (immediately within xsl:stylesheet) it declares a global variable, otherwise it declares a local variable
that is visible only within the stylesheet element containing the xsl:variable declaration.</p>
<p>The mandatory <code>name</code> attribute defines the name of the variable.</p>
<p>The value of the variable may be defined either by an expression within the optional <code>select</code> attribute, or
by the contents of the xsl:variable element. In the latter case the result is a temporary tree. A
temporary tree can be used like a source document, for example it can be accessed using path expressions
and processed using template rules.</p>
<p>There is an optional attribute, <code>as</code>, to define the type of the variable. The actual supplied
value must be an instance of this type; it will not be converted. <i>This has changed in Saxon 7.4: previous
releases did a conversion.</i></p>
<p>In standard XSLT, variables once declared cannot be updated. Saxon however provides a
<a class="bodylink" href="../extensions/instructions/assign.xml">saxon:assign</a>
extension element to circumvent this restriction.</p>
<p>The value of a variable can be referenced within an expression using the syntax <code>$name</code>.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
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style="border: solid thin; background-color: #B1CCC7; padding: 2px">
<pre>
<code><xsl:variable name="title">A really exciting document"</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="backcolor" expr="'#FFFFCC'" />
<xsl:template match="/*">
<HTML><TITLE<xsl:value-of select="$title"/></TITLE>
<BODY BGCOLOR='{$backcolor}'>
...<br/>
</BODY></HTML>
</xsl:template></code>
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