[xsl] Transform list of elements to a sorted and dynamic HTML table

[Jannis Pohlmann <info@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good morning,

I have a list of items, e.g.:

<item>
 <name>Adoreable</name>
 <date>2004-12-11</date>
</item>
<item>
 <name>Adjustable</name>
 <date>2004-12-11</date>
</item>
<item>
 <name>Bulk</name>
 <date>2004-12-10</date>
</item>
<item>
 <name>Condensed</name>
 <date>2004-12-12</date>
</item>
<item>
 <name>Compromise</name>
 <date>2004-11-08</date>
</item>

and I want them to be transformed to a sorted and dynamic (columns and rows 
adjustable by variables - $Columns and $Rows) HTML table (using 
recent Version of Saxon and XSLT2.0). The sort element are the <date/>-Elements 
(descending), so the table output had to look like this ($Columns = 2, $Rows = 2):

<table>
 <tr>
   <td>Condensed</td>
   <td>Adjustable</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
   <td>Adoreable</td>
   <td>Bulk</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
   <td colspan="2">Compromise</td>
 </tr>
</table>

If there are not enough items to fill the columns of the last row its last <td> should
have a "colspan" attribute in order to satisfy layout requirements. No empty
rows should be created (e.g. if there are not enough items to fill all <$Rows> rows).

As you may see there exists a second sort element (<name/>, ascending) in my example
but this is no must-have feature.

An alternative way might be to select the first <$Columns * $Rows> items (sorted descendingly 
by <date/>, of course) - but I see no solution for this, right now.

Is there a way to handle this problem with the power of XSLT? 

Regards,
Jannis