RE: [xsl] TOC Problem

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Frank,

At 09:31 AM 3/3/2005, you wrote:
> THE PROBLEM:
> Ok, i am able to fetch all the beginnings of the speeches per speaker. But
> if i access a further speech of a speaker
> , further means all speeches after the first one, the TOC is falsly extended
> in this way:
>
> Table Of Content
> Joe.........1, 3, 7
> Bob............2, 5
> Joe........... 3, 7  <- false
> Bob...............5  <- false
> Joe...............7  <- false
>
> So i have to memorize all the speakers i have already treated to treat them
> not again. But i do not know how to memorize!?

That's why this is a grouping problem (which was my hint yesterday, and 
someone else's, I think).

An essential aspect of grouping is de-duplicating (boy do I wish there were 
another word for that ... I suppose "removing duplicates" might do), so 
that each group is processed once. If you do not de-duplicate your list of 
grouped items, each group is processed as many times as there are members 
of the group.

That's why you're getting three listings for Joe. If he appeared a fourth 
time you'd get a fourth listing.

Look again at those resources on grouping and see whether they don't help.

In particular, in XSLT/XPath it's not a matter of "memorizing" whether a 
name has been encountered already, but rather of selecting not "all names" 
but rather "all names *the first time they appear*". Having selected all 
names the first time they appear, you then proceed to process, for each of 
those names, all their appearances.

That's how they get grouped -- and this is, in fact, the essence of the 
"Muenchian method" of grouping in XSLT (which you will find to be 
well-documented).

Regards,
Wendell


======================================================================
Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
======================================================================