xslt-lab/site/content/xslt/functions/xpath-position.md at 53e90ef86eb84466586e3d5357fd6dc4212f0a98

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alexandrev-tibco b9d58ff7e0 feat(blog): XSLT/XPath function reference section (Phase 2)

- 19 reference pages under /xslt/functions/ covering:
  xsl:value-of, xsl:for-each, xsl:for-each-group, xsl:function,
  xsl:iterate, last(), position(), count(), concat(), contains(),
  substring(), sum(), key(), current(), string-join(), tokenize(),
  matches(), replace(), format-date()
- Each page: description, parameters table, return value, 2 runnable
  examples (input XML + stylesheet + output), notes, cross-links
- New Hugo section with reference-specific layout (version badges,
  syntax block, "Try in Playground" CTA, parameters table styles)
- Menu entry "Reference" → /xslt/functions/
- CSS: .ref-badge, .ref-syntax, .ref-index-list, .ref-try + table styles

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-04-18 14:38:55 +02:00

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Description

position() returns an integer representing the 1-based position of the current context node within the node-set being iterated. It takes no arguments.

It is most commonly used inside xsl:for-each or predicates to:

Generate row numbers or sequence numbers in the output.
Apply alternating styles (odd/even rows).
Conditionally process only specific positions (first, last, every nth item).
Omit separators before or after specific items.

The context for position() is determined by the nearest enclosing iteration (xsl:for-each, xsl:apply-templates, or a predicate). Inside a predicate, position() refers to the position within the node-set being filtered, not the outer iteration.

Return value

xs:integer — the 1-based position of the context node within the current context sequence.

Examples

Row numbers in a table

Input XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<employees>
  <employee><name>Alice</name></employee>
  <employee><name>Bob</name></employee>
  <employee><name>Carol</name></employee>
</employees>

Stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="/employees">
    <table>
      <xsl:for-each select="employee">
        <row number="{position()}">
          <xsl:value-of select="name"/>
        </row>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </table>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

<table>
  <row number="1">Alice</row>
  <row number="2">Bob</row>
  <row number="3">Carol</row>
</table>

Odd/even row class

Stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="/employees">
    <table>
      <xsl:for-each select="employee">
        <row class="{if(position() mod 2 = 0, 'even', 'odd')}">
          <xsl:value-of select="name"/>
        </row>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </table>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

<table>
  <row class="odd">Alice</row>
  <row class="even">Bob</row>
  <row class="odd">Carol</row>
</table>

Note: the if() expression requires XSLT 2.0. In XSLT 1.0, use xsl:choose instead.

Select every second element using a predicate

<xsl:value-of select="employee[position() mod 2 = 1]/name" separator=", "/>

Notes

position() inside a predicate [position() = 1] can be shortened to [1].
The shorthand item[last()] selects the last item; item[1] selects the first.
Document order is used by default; if xsl:sort is present, positions reflect the sorted order.
Do not confuse position() with the numeric value of an @id attribute or similar content-based numbering — position() is purely about iteration order.

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