XSL copy-of and value-of
Like most languages there are often a variety of ways of achieving similar results, and XSL is no different.
Take the xsl copy-of and value-of commands.
Assuming the following sample xml document:
<xml>
<text>Good <b>news</b> everybody!</text>
</xml>
The following uses of copy-of and value-of all achieve similar but different results.
copy-of
<xsl:copy-of select="/xml/text" />
<text>Good <b>news</b> everybody!</text>
Using node()
<xsl:copy-of select="/xml/text/node()" />
Good <b>news</b> everybody!
Using *
<xsl:copy-of select="/xml/text/*" />
<b>news</b>
value-of
<xsl:value-of select="/xml/text" />
Good news everybody!