Can you put a <c:cout> tag inside the `value` attribute of a <c:set> tag?

Question

I want to output the value of the xzy variable into the value of the abc variable.

<c:set var="abc" value="<c:out value="${xyz}"/>"/>

I'm getting an error (unterminated <c:set> tag) when I do this.

How do you do this?

Answer 1

No, you must have well-formed markup. <c:set/> can have body content instead of a value attribute though:

<c:set var="abc"><c:out value="${xyz}" /></c:set>

I would only use this to take advantage of the XML-escaping provided by <c:out/>. Otherwise it's simpler just to set the value="${xyz}".