Re: [xsl] xsl:sort and xsl:key

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Kerin:

I'd guess the most glaring pratfall is an elementary one (so apologies if 
it doesn't apply to you).

That is to mistake

<xsl:sort select="key()"/>

as having the effect of selecting the node-set retrieved by the key, and 
sorting them. Really what it does is sort the current node list using the 
value(s) of the node-set(s) retrieved by the key() expression (for each 
node in the list), as the sort key for an alphabetic or numeric sort.

Does that make sense? In other words, someone who hasn't mastered sorting 
might say this when they really mean:

<xsl:apply-templates select="key()">
  <xsl:sort/>
</xsl:apply-templates>

Getting, no doubt, very erratic results (including errors from using 
xsl:sort where it's not allowed). But without knowing what you're trying to 
do, I can't say if that describes your case.

Cheers,
Wendell

At 11:22 AM 7/11/01, you wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> This is a horribly vague question, but it would take a *very* long time to
> give a proper background and explanation to what it is I'm doing just now:
>
> Are there any issues I should know about when trying to perform something
> like <xsl:sort select="key()"/> ?
>
> I've tried it a couple of times with what I'm working on, and the results
> have been erratic, to say the least. Does anybody know if any issues, common
> pratfalls, etc?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kerin
>
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list


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