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<s1 title="XSLTC Performance">

  <s2 title="Introduction">

    <p><em>XSLT is not a programming language!</em> Just so you remember.
    XSLT is a declarative language and can be used by you to describe
    <em>what</em> you want put in your output document and
    <em>what</em> you want this output to look like. It does not describe
    <em>how</em> these tasks should be carried. That is the job of the XSLT
    processor. This document is <em>not</em> a "<ref>programmer's guide to XSLT</ref>"
    and should not be considered as such. All XSLT processors have their
    properties and ways of handling XSL elements and XPath properties. This
    document will give you some insight into the XSLTC internals, so that you
    can channel your stylesheets through XSLTC's shortest and most efficient
    code paths.</p>

    <p>XSLTC's performance has always been one of its key selling points.
    (I should probably find a better term here, since we're giving XSLTC away
    for free.) But, there are some specific patterns and expressions that are
    not handled much better than with other interpretive XSLT processors, and
    this document is an attempt to pinpoint these and to outline alternatives.
    </p>

  </s2>

  <s2 title="Contents">
    <ul>
      <li><link anchor="pred">Avoid using predicates in '*' patterns</link></li>
      <li><link anchor="idkey">Avoid using id/key-patterns</link></li>
      <li><link anchor="union">Avoid union expressions where possible</link></li>
      <li><link anchor="sort">Sort stored node-sets once</link></li>
      <li><link anchor="cache">Cache input documents</link></li>
      <li><link anchor="trax">TrAX vs. native API</link></li>
    </ul>
  </s2>

  <anchor name="pred"/>
  <s2 title="Avoid using predicates in wildcard patterns">

    <p>XSLTC gains its speed from the simple dispatch loop in the translet's
    <code>applyTemplates()</code> method. This method uses a simple
    <code>switch()</code> statement to choose the desired template based on
    the current node's node type (an integer). By adding a pattern with a
    wildcard (no type) and a predicate, XSLTC is forced to evaluate the
    predicate for every single node.</p><source>
    &lt;xsl:template match="*[2]"></source>

    <p>The above pattern should be avoided by selecting the desired node when
    using <code>&lt;xsl:apply-templates&gt;</code>. Use named templates or
    modes to make sure you trigger the correct template:</p><source>
    &lt;xsl:template match="/">
      &lt;xsl:apply-templates select="bar"/>
    &lt;/xsl:template>

    &lt;xsl:template match="*[2]"/>

    &lt;xsl:template match="*"/></source>

    <p>can be replaced by:</p><source>
    &lt;xsl:template match="/">
      &lt;xsl:apply-templates select="bar"/>
      &lt;xsl:apply-templates select="bar[2]" mode="second"/>
    &lt;/xsl:template>

    &lt;xsl:template match="*" mode="second"/>

    &lt;xsl:template match="*"/></source>

    <p>This change will only improve performance if the stylesheet is fairly
    large and has a good few templates (10 or more). Also note that the order
    of the output is changed by this approach, so if the order is significant
    you'll have to stick to the original stylesheet.</p>

    <p><em>Important note:</em> The type of pattern referred to as a
    type-less pattern, as it does not match any specific node type. Such
    patterns do in general degrade the performance of XSLTC. Type-less patterns
    must be evaluated for every single node in the input document - causing a
    general performance degradation.</p>

  </s2>

  <anchor name="idkey"/>
  <s2 title="Avoid using id/key-patterns">

    <p>Id and key patterns can be used to trigger a template if the current
    node has a specific id or has a specific value in a key's index:</p><source>
    &lt;xsl:template match="id('some-value')"/>

    &lt;xsl:template match="key('key-name', 'some-value')"/></source>

    <p>Looking up a value/node-pair in an index does not require much processing
    time at all. But, this is also a type-less pattern and can match any type
    of node. This degrades XSLTC's performance, just like wildcard patterns
    with predicates (see above paragraph).</p>

  </s2>

  <anchor name="union"/>
  <s2 title="Avoid union expressions where possible">

    <p>Union expressions provide an all-in-one-go easy way of applying templates
    to sets of nodes:</p><source>
    &lt;xsl:apply-templates select="foo|bar|baz"/></source>

    <p>The union iterator that is used to implement union expressions is 
    unfortunately not very efficient. If node order is not of importance, then
    one can benefit from breaking the union up in several elements:</p><source>
    &lt;xsl:apply-templates select="foo"/>
    &lt;xsl:apply-templates select="bar"/>
    &lt;xsl:apply-templates select="baz"/></source>

    <p>But, remeber that this will give you all <code>&lt;foo&gt;</code>
    elements first, then all <code>&lt;bar&gt;</code> elements, and so on.
    This is not always desirable. You may want to handle these elements in
    the order in which they appear in the input document.</p>

    <p><em>Important note:</em> This does <em>not</em> apply to union patterns.
    Using unions in patterns actually makes smaller and more efficient code,
    as only one copy of the templete body has to be compiled. Use:</p><source>
    &lt;xsl:template match="foo|bar|baz"/></source>

    <p>instead of:</p><source>
    &lt;xsl:template match="foo"/>
    &lt;xsl:template match="bar"/>
    &lt;xsl:template match="baz"/></source>
 
  </s2>

  <anchor name="sort"/>
  <s2 title="Sort stored node-sets once">

    <p>This item is very obvious, but nevertheless easy to forget in some
    complicated cases. If you put a result-tree fragment inside a variable, and
    you want the nodes in a specific, sorted order, then sort the nodes as you
    create the variable and not when you use it. Instead of:</p><source>

    &lt;xsl:variable name="bars">
      &lt;xsl:copy-of select="//foo/bar"/>
    &lt;/xsl:variable>

    &lt;xsl:template match="/">
      &lt;xsl:text>List of bar's in sorted order:&amp;#xa;&lt;/xsl:text>
      &lt;xsl:for-each select="$bars-sorted">
        &lt;xsl:value-of select="@name"/>
        &lt;xsl:text>&amp;#xa;&lt;/xsl:text>
      &lt;/xsl:for-each>
    &lt;/xsl:template></source>

    <p>A better way, and with most XSLT processors the only legal way, is to
    sort the result tree when creating it:</p><source>

    &lt;xsl:variable name="bars">
      &lt;xsl:for-each select="//foo/bar">
        &lt;xsl:sort select="@name"/>
        &lt;xsl:copy-of select="."/>
      &lt;/xsl:for-each>
    &lt;/xsl:variable>

    &lt;xsl:template match="/">
      &lt;xsl:text>List of bar's in sorted order:&amp;#xa;&lt;/xsl:text>
      &lt;xsl:for-each select="$bars">
        &lt;xsl:value-of select="@name"/>
        &lt;xsl:text>&amp;#xa;&lt;/xsl:text>
      &lt;/xsl:for-each>
    &lt;/xsl:template></source>

    <p>It is very common to sort node-sets returned by the id() and key()
    functions. Instead of doing this sorting over and over again, one should
    use a variable and store the node set in the desired sort order, and read
    the node set from the variable whenever used.</p>

  </s2>

  <anchor name="cache"/>
  <s2 title="Cache the input document">

    <p>All XSLT processors use an internal DOM-like structure, and XSLTC is no
    exception. The internal DOM is tailored for the XSLTC design and can be
    navigated efficiently by the translet. Building the internal DOM is a
    rather slow process, and does very many cases take more time than the
    actual transformation. This is a general rule, and does not only apply to
    XSLTC. It is advisable, and common in most large-scale XSLT-based
    applications, to create a cache for the input documents. Not only does this
    prevent CPU- and memory-intensive DOM creation, but it also prevents several
    translets from having their own private copies of common input documents.
    Both XSLTC's  internal API and TrAX implementation provide ways of
    implementing a decent input document cache:</p>

    <ul>
      <li>See <link anchor="trax-cache">below</link> for a description of how
      to do this using the TrAX interface.</li>

      <li>The <jump href="xsltc_native_api.html#document-locator">native API
      documentation</jump> contains a section on using the internal
      <code>org.apache.xalan.xsltc.compiler.SourceLoader</code> interface.</li>
    </ul>
  </s2>

  <anchor name="trax"/>
  <s2 title="TrAX vs. native API">

    <s4 title="TrAX performance benefits">

    <p>If XSLTC's two-step approach to XSLT processing suits your application
    then there is no reason why you should not use the TrAX API. The API fits
    very nicely in with XSLTC internals and processing model. In fact, you may
    even benefit from using TrAX in cases where your stylesheet is compiled
    into a large ammount of auxiliary classes. The most obvious benefit is that
    the translet class and auxiliary classes are all bundled inside the
    <code>Templates</code> object. Performance can also be improved due to the
    fact that XSLTC chaches all auxiliary classes inside <code>Templates</code>
    code, preventing the class loader from being invoked more than necessary.
    This is just theory and no tests have been done, but you should see a
    performance improvement when using XSLTC and TrAX in such cases.</p>

    </s4>

    <s4 title="Treat Templates objects as compiled translets">

    <p>When using TrAX, the <code>Templates</code> object should be considered
    the result of a compilation. With XSLTC this is the actual case - the
    <code>Templates</code> object contains the translet Java class(es). With
    other XSLT processors the <code>Templates</code> directly or indirectly
    contains data-structures represent all or parts of the input stylesheet.
    The bottom line is: Create your <code>Templates</code> object once, cache
    and re-use it as often as possible.</p>

    </s4>

    <anchor name="trax-cache"/>
    <s4 title="Input document caching">

    <p>An extension to the TrAX API allows input documents to be cached. The
    extensions is a sub-class to the TrAX <code>Source</code> class, which can
    be used to wrap XSLTC's internal DOM structures. This is described in
    detail in the <link idref="xsltc_trax_api">XSLTC TrAX API reference</link>.
    </p>

    <p>If you do chose to implement a DOM cache, you should have your cache
    implement the <code>javax.xml.transform.URIResolver</code> interface so
    that documents loaded by the <code>document()</code> function are also read
    from your cache.</p>

    </s4>

  </s2>

</s1>