Re: [xsl] using keys on variables

["Martin Honnen martin.honnen@xxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 08.10.2016 11:21, Graydon graydon@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> In XSLT 2.0 and subsequent,
>
> key('keyname',object,$variable)
>
> is acceptable but only if the $variable is a document node.

That is not true, you can search a subtree of a document by passing in 
an element in that document. The only requirement is that the root of 
the tree containing the node supplied in the third argument is a 
document node.



> So I have found myself going
>
> <xsl:variable name="temp">
>     <xsl:sequence select="$preExisting"/>
> </xsl:variable>
>
> So I could use a key on a variable typed as an element.  (In the
> specific case, to pull a subset of an already constructed sequence of
> middling-complicated mapping elements; A maps to B but there's metadata
> about A, B, and the mapping in there, so generating it again isn't
> attractive.)
>
> Is there a better way to approach the requirement that the variable be a
> document node in order to use the key?

I also like using variables typed as element() or element()* but if I 
want to use keys then I think the right approach is to make sure you 
start with a document node as the root of the elements.