RE: searching for closest previous element

["Reynolds, Gregg" <greynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You might also try using functions from the "Counting" section,
10.2.4.2, p.144.  
1.  Use (element-number-list '("Y") (current-node)) to get the number k
of Y elements in the entire grove preceding the current node.
2.  Use select-elements to gather all the Y elements in a node list Ynl.
3.  Use (node-list-ref Ynl k) to get at the desired Y element.
Haven't tested it so I don't know how fast it would be but it should do
the trick while avoiding recursive searches.
-gr
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	stephenng@xxxxxxxxxxxx [SMTP:stephenng@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent:	Wednesday, March 18, 1998 5:58 AM
	  ... 
	  
> When handling element "X", I would like to find the closest previous
> occurrence of element "Y" in the document, because I need to look up
> some attribute of element "Y".  For perverse reasons, elements "X"
> and "Y" can occur anywhere in the document, at any level, so the
> occurrence of "Y" that I need to look up would be the closest
> previous element if you flattened the whole tree.
> 
> I have a routine to do this, but it's really really slow.
	  ... 


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