Processing Multiple Elements with xsl:for-each

The xsl:value-of element should only be used in contexts where it is obvious which node's value is being taken. If there are multiple possible items that could be selected, then only the first one will be chosen. For instance, this is a poor rule because a typical PERIODIC_TABLE element contains more than one ATOM:

There are two ways of processing multiple elements in turn. The first method you've already seen. Simply use xsl:apply-templates with a select attribute that chooses the particular elements that you want to include, like this:

The select="." in the second template tells the formatter to take the value of the matched element, ATOM in this example.

The second option is xsl:for-each. The xsl:for-each element processes each element chosen by its select attribute in turn. However, no additional template is required. For example: