Chapter 7. Transforming XML with XSLT

You now know how to read XML from a variety of data sources and formats, write XML documents in different formats from arbitrary data structures, create and manipulate XML documents in memory using the DOM, and navigate through any XML tree using XPath. Each of these functions builds on those that came before to open up a new series of possibilities.

The next logical step is to transform the presentation of XML data from one format to another. Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) is designed to do just that.

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is a language designed to provide presentation for the content of XML documents. It is composed of three parts: XSLT, XPath (which you're already familiar with from Chapter 6), and XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO).

In this chapter, I'll show you XSLT and the .NET assembly that deals with it, System.Xml.Xsl. But first, some background.