number Function

Article
02/21/2011

Converts the argument to a number.

number number(object?)

Remarks

Converts its argument to a number as follows.

A string that consists of optional white space followed by an optional minus sign followed by a number followed by white space is converted to the IEEE 754 number that is nearest (according to the IEEE 754 round-to-nearest rule) to the mathematical value represented by the string; any other string is converted to NaN.
Boolean true is converted to 1; Boolean false is converted to 0.
A node-set is first converted to a string and then converted in the same way as a string argument.
An object of a type other than the four basic types (node-set, Boolean, number, or string) is converted to a number in a way that is dependent on that type.

If the argument is omitted, it defaults to a node-set with the context node as its only member.

Note
The `number()` function should not be used for conversion of numeric data occurring in an element in an XML document unless the element is of a type that represents numeric data in a language-neutral format (that would typically be transformed into a language-specific format for presentation to a user). In addition, the `number()` function cannot be used unless the language-neutral format used by the element is consistent with the XML Path Language (XPath) syntax for a number.

Note

The number() function should not be used for conversion of numeric data occurring in an element in an XML document unless the element is of a type that represents numeric data in a language-neutral format (that would typically be transformed into a language-specific format for presentation to a user). In addition, the number() function cannot be used unless the language-neutral format used by the element is consistent with the XML Path Language (XPath) syntax for a number.

Example

XML File

None; the XSLT file calls itself.

XSLT File (number.xsl)

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="number.xsl"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
      xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="html"/>

<xsl:template match="/"> 
<html> 
<body> 
<h3>number() Function</h3>
<ul> 
<li> 
<b>number('2048')</b>
= 
<xsl:value-of select="number('2048')"/>
</li>
<li> 
<b>number('-2048')</b>
= 
<xsl:value-of select="number('-2048')"/>
</li>
<li> 
<b>number('text')</b>
= 
<xsl:value-of select="number('text')"/>
</li>
<li> 
<b>number('109.54' div '1')</b>
= 
<xsl:value-of select="number('109.54' div '1')"/>
</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Formatted Output

number() Function

number('2048') = 2048

number('-2048') = -2048

number('text') = NaN

number('109.54') = 109.54

Processor Output

<html>
<body>
<h3>number() Function</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>number('2048')</b>
=
2048</li>
<li><b>number('-2048')</b>
=
-2048</li>
<li><b>number('text')</b>
=
NaN</li>
<li><b>number('109.54' div '1')</b>
=
109.54</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>

Share via