Re: [xsl] [XPath] matching elements which satisfy a specific content model

Subject: Re: [xsl] [XPath] matching elements which satisfy a specific content model
From: Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 12:29:43 +0100
David Carlisle wrote:

> I find it's rare to ever need this kind of test though.
>
> If your input may include
>
> <variablelist>
>    <title></title>
> </variablelist>
>
>
> and
>
>
> <variablelist>
>    <title></title>
>    <varlistentry/>
> </variablelist>
>
>
> how do you want them to be processed?

see below

> If the first is an error you can arrange to dtd validate before
> transforming in which case such fragments will never get as far as
> XSLt
> so you don't need to check for them in the pattern.

I could rely on DTD validation, but I don't think I should. My template says what it matches, and thus states what it can handle: no matter what which version of which spec/schema(DTD etc) says.
It can handle this type of content model, nothing more. And if a future version of the schema allows for an extended content model, there will be no problem with validity in the oputput.


> If validation is not an option it's often simpler to match on the
> simpler * case but then have
> <xsl:if test="not(varlistentry)">...

I already have to test for the existence of the title.

> Do you really have a case where you want to accept both these things
> but
> teh reulting output is so different that you don't want to share a
> template for the two cases?

[very hackish draft of pseudo-code]
<t:template match="variablelist[]">
  <t:if test="title">
    <t:element name="h{count(ancestor::*)}">
      <t:value-of select="title"/>
    </t:element>
  </t:test>
  <dl>
    <t:apply-templates/>
  </dl>
</t:template>
<!-- quirky -->
<t:template match="variablelist[]/title"/>

In [], picture either a very long XPath1.0 thingy, or an elegant, short content-model description :)

But beware; sure there are many different ways to handle this, and none of them *requires* what I propose. But it would make some things simpler.

Tobi

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