Re: [xsl] Testing 2 XML documents for equality - a solution

Subject: Re: [xsl] Testing 2 XML documents for equality - a solution
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 11:34:24 -0500
At 04:07 AM 4/1/2005, David wrote:
> Yes, such "equality" is not too useful and in fact is misleading.

although people seem to get by in XPath 1, where

'1' = 1 and 1 = 1.0
'1'      !=     1.0

I think we get away with this because the number of datatypes is small and thus the casting rules can simply be memorized; "equality" can be learned in that context. (Hint to XSLT 1.0 aspirants: learn the casting rules.)


Soon enough (if you're paying attention) you learn that XPath 1.0 "equality" isn't quite the operation you might expect. As such, you have to use it with some care, but once you understand how it works it's quite useful (and even, to a large extent, before that point).

It's a nice example, in fact, of how "equality" as we encounter it in practice (that is, as an operation that happens to be called "equality") may even sometimes fall short of the rigorous sense that Dimitre defined and that Mukul needs (if only implicitly) in order to specify his requirements with similar rigor.

Cheers,
Wendell



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