# saxon:column-number(node)

saxon:column-number() ==> xs:integer

saxon:column-number($node as node()) ==> xs:integer

This function returns the column number of a selected element within the XML document (or external entity) that contains it. If the argument is supplied, it must be a node; if the argument is omitted, the context item is used, in which case the context item must be a node. If line and column numbers are not maintained for the current document, the function returns -1.

To ensure that line and column numbers are maintained, use the -l (letter ell) option on the command line.

Note that the value returned is dependent on information supplied by the XML parser. For an element node, SAX parsers generally report the line and column position of the ">" character at the end of the start tag. StAX parsers by contrast report the position of the "<" character at the start of the start tag. SAX parsers report line and column numbers only for element nodes, so for any other kind of node, the returned value will be -1.

See also saxon:line-number().

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