<xsl:copy-of>  
Copies things to the result tree. The select attribute defines the content to be copied. If the select attribute identifies a result-tree fragment, the complete fragment is copied to the result tree. If select identifies a node-set, all nodes in the node-set are copied to the result tree in document order; unlike <xsl:copy>, the node is copied in its entirety, including any namespace nodes, attribute nodes, and child nodes. If the select attribute identifies something other than a result-tree fragment or a node-set, it is converted to a string and inserted into the result tree.
 
Category

Instruction
 
Required Attributes
select
Contains an XPath expression that defines the nodes to be copied to the output document.

 
Optional Attributes

None.
 
Content

None. <xsl:copy-of> is an empty element.

 
Appears in

<xsl:copy-of> appears inside a template.

 
Defined in

XSLT section 11.3, Using Values of Variables and Parameters with xsl:copy-of.

 
Example

We'll demonstrate <xsl:copy-of> with a simple stylesheet that copies the input document to the result tree. Here is our stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
  <xsl:output method="xml"/>


  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

We'll test our stylesheet with the following document:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<list>
  <title>A few of my favorite albums</title>
  <listitem>A Love Supreme</listitem>
  <listitem>Beat Crazy</listitem>
  <listitem>Here Come the Warm Jets</listitem>
  <listitem>Kind of Blue</listitem>
  <listitem>London Calling</listitem>
  <listitem>Remain in Light</listitem>
  <listitem>The Joshua Tree</listitem>
  <listitem>The Indestructible Beat of Soweto</listitem>
</list>

When we transform the XML document, the results are strikingly similar to the input document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<list>
  <title>A few of my favorite albums</title>
  <listitem>A Love Supreme</listitem>
  <listitem>Beat Crazy</listitem>
  <listitem>Here Come the Warm Jets</listitem>
  <listitem>Kind of Blue</listitem>
  <listitem>London Calling</listitem>
  <listitem>Remain in Light</listitem>
  <listitem>The Joshua Tree</listitem>
  <listitem>The Indestructible Beat of Soweto</listitem>
</list>

The only difference between the two documents is that the stylesheet engine has added an encoding to the XML declaration. Compare this to the example in the <xsl:copy> element.