[xsl] Xpath for a range of elements

Subject: [xsl] Xpath for a range of elements
From: "Anderson, Paul" <Paul.Anderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 17:53:17 -0500
Greetings,

Consider the following skeleton for an XML source file:

<section>
   <title>...</title>
   <para>...</para>
   <code-block>...</code-block>
   <para>...</para>
   <procedure>...</procedure>
   <para>...</para>
   <screen>...</screen>
   <para>...</para>
</section>

I need a Xpath expression that will return all nodes after the <title>
and before the <procedure> (i.e., from section/para[1] through
section/para[2]). Then I operate on the <procedure>. Then I need another
Xpath expression that returns all the nodes after the procedure up to
the end of the <section> (i.e., from section/para[3] through
section/para[4]. The source documents vary enough that I do not know in
advance the number of elements or nature of the elements before or after
the <procedure>. I do, however, know that there is always one (and only
one) <procedure>.

In my research, I came across the following thread on this list
(http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/200608/msg00043.html).
This thread appeared to hold the answer for me but I can't make it work.
I saw that the solution was specific to Xpath 2.0 so I made sure to
upgrade to Saxon 8 and to update my scripts so that they would work
(e.g., migrate <xsl:document> to <xsl:result-document>, etc.).

Here is an approximation of the template that matches the section in the
example above:

<xsl:template match="section">
	<my-proc id="{@id}">
		<xsl:element name="proc-title">
			<xsl:value-of select="./title"/>
		</xsl:element>
		<xsl:element name="procbody">
			<xsl:element name="prereq">
				<xsl:apply-templates select="*[.
&lt;&lt; procedure[1]]"/>
			</xsl:element>
			<xsl:apply-templates select="./procedure"/>
			<xsl:element name="postreq">
				<xsl:apply-templates select="*[.
&gt;&gt; procedure[1]]"/>
			</xsl:element>
		</xsl:element>
	</my-proc>
</xsl:template>

I must be making a simple mistake. Any assistance is appreciated.

Best regards,

Paul Anderson



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