Re: [xsl] What does the phrase "duplicates removed" mean precisely?

[andrew welch <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/1/06, Jay Bryant <jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi, Mark,
>
>  <SomeTag>This is the text</SomeTag>
>
> wouldn't be a duplicate, as it is a single element.
>
> Now, if I had a structure like this:
>
> <root>
>  <SomeTag>This is the text</SomeTag>
>  <SomeTag>This is the text</SomeTag>
> </root>
>
> I'd have a duplicate.

Hi Jay,

In this instance "duplicates" is being referred to in the sense of a
Set - a Set will by definition never contain two of the same item.  In
your example the nodes have the same element name and value, but they
are different nodes - generate-id() will produce a different value for
each.

If you selected the same nodes twice eg
select="/root/SomeTag|/root/SomeTag" then the assembled Set will still
only contain the same nodes as if you had selected them once eg
select="/root/SomeTag" or 100 times - the duplicates (or nodes with
the same generate-id()) never get added (or are removed depending on
your perspective).

cheers
andrew