Sorting subtrees based on their maximum depth.

[Mike Trotman <mike.trotman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi.

I have XML documents containing hierarchical ly recursive SUBTREES.
(eg:
<XML>
....
<SUBTREE>
...<SUBTREE>
......<SUBTREE>
.....etc....
......</SUBTREE>
......<SUBTREE>
.....etc....
......</SUBTREE>
....</SUBTREE>
...<SUBTREE>
......<SUBTREE>
.....etc....
......</SUBTREE>
....</SUBTREE>
</SUBTREE>
...
</XML>

I need to recursively sort these SUBTREES based on the maximum depth of 
descendant elements that they contain.

I am currently doing this in two passes.
In the 1st pass I compute and assign a 'DEPTH' attribute to each SUBTREE 
using:

<xsl:variable name='curr_depth' select='count(ancestor::*'/>
<xsl:variable name='DEPTH'>
<xsl:for-each select='.//*[not(child::*)]'>
   <xsl:sort select='count(ancestor::*) - $curr_depth' 
data-type='number' order='descending'/>
   <xsl:if test='position() = 1'><xsl:value-of 
select='count(ancestor::*) - $curr_depth'/></xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:variable>

and then I reprocess the new document using normal sorting on the 
'@DEPTH' attribute.

I wondered if there is a way to do this in one-pass - and to avoid doing 
those ancestor counts twice.

Any help greatly appreciated.

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