starts-with Function

Returns true if the first argument string starts with the second argument string; otherwise returns false.

boolean starts-with(string, string)

Remarks

If an argument is not of type string, it is first converted to a string and then evaluated. The function is case-sensitive.

Example

The following example illustrates how to use the starts-with() function to query a collection of books whose title begins with a capital letter "W".

XML FILE (starts-with.xml)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" 
href="contains.xsl"?>      
<bookstore>
  <book>
     <title>The Weather Pattern</title>
     <author>Weather Man</author>
     <price>100.00</price>
  </book>
  <book>
     <title>Weaving Patterns</title>
     <author>Weaver</author>
     <price>150.00</price>
  </book>
  <book>
     <title>Speech Pattern</title>
     <author>Speaker</author>
     <price>15.00</price>
  </book>
  <book>
     <title>Writing Style</title>
     <author>Writer</author>
     <price>1500.00</price>
  </book>
</bookstore>

XSLT FILE (starts-with.xsl)

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

  <xsl:output method="html"   
     omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <html>
       <head><title>example</title></head>
    <body>
       <xsl:apply-templates select="//book"/>
    </body>
    </html>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="book">
     <xsl:if test="starts-with(title, 'W')">
       <DIV>
         <B><xsl:value-of select="title"/></B> by 
         <I><xsl:value-of select="author"/></I> costs
         <xsl:value-of select="price"/>.
       </DIV>
     </xsl:if>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Output

This XSLT style sheet, when applied to the XML file (starts-with.xml) produces the following output:

Weaving Patterns by Weaver costs 150.00.

Writing Style by Writer costs 1500.00.

starts-with Function

Remarks

Example

See Also