RE: [xsl] grouping consecutive elements

["Michael Kay" <michael.h.kay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> trying to transform an XML document obtained by using MajiX 
> we don´t know how to group consecutive XML elements into a 
> single one. For example we want to group consecutive <b> 
> siblings into a single <b> or consecutive <i> into a single 
> <i>, keeping always their internal structure.
> 
It's not actually an easy problem. The following kind of technique is
sometimes useful:

<xsl:template match="b">
<b>
  <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
  <xsl:apply-templates 
    select="following-sibling::*[1][self::b]"
    mode="more"/>
</b>
  <xsl:apply-templates 
    select="following-sibling::[not(self::b)][1]"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="b" mode="more">
  <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
  <xsl:apply-templates 
    select="following-sibling::*[1][self::b]"
    mode="more"/>
</xsl:template>

and similarly for the other elements that occur. It's basically applying
templates "horizontally" rather than "vertically", a special case of
recursive processing rather than iterative processing. 

Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael.H.Kay@xxxxxxxxxxxx
work: Michael.Kay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  


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