number Function

MSXML 5.0 SDK

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Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 5.0 for Microsoft Office - XPath Reference

number Function

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.

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')</b> =       109.54</li></ul></body></html>

See Also

Data Types in Schemas | XDR Schema Data Types Reference | XML Data Types Reference

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