Re: [xsl] Dynamic Tables

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeff,

JP may have another word of explanation but I can throw some stuff in.

Two things that you may already know, but we have to be clear on to avoid 
misconceiving the problem:

* equality testing rules for node-sets -- in the XSLT spec at 
w3.org/TR/xpath -- two node-sets test as equal if either node set contains 
any node with the same (string) value as any node in the other node set.

So ". = ../listing" tests true if the context node of the expression has 
the same value as any node in the set "../listing".

* "../listing" is short for "parent::node()/child::listing". If the context 
node is a listing element, this will always test as true, since the context 
node itself is among the listing children of its parent. (Also defined in 
the XPath Rec.)

If you want to test whether a node has the same value as any of its 
siblings (not the same as the children of its parent, which category of 
course includes itself), you can test ". = (preceding-sibling::* | 
following-sibling::*)" (or perhaps (preceding-sibling::listing | 
following-sibling::listing) in your case).

At 12:23 PM 11/26/2003, you wrote:
> I thought the were going to be equal because they are part of the same
> context.  Is there a way to compare the pair-wise unequal $unique-rooms to
> say an a sibling node with similar data?

Depends on what you mean by "pair-wise", but yes.

>   Is context part of the select
> statement?  If I select //topics/topic/location am I in the location
> context, if so can I compare "." to //topics/place/room data?

Sure -- it compares the string value of the context node to the string 
values of all the nodes in //topics/place/room (and tests true if any are 
the same).

Notice however in your example that if you iterate over $unique-rooms, the 
context is no longer what it is outside the for-each - inside it, "." 
refers to each of the nodes in $unique-rooms as it is processed. The 
workaround for this is to bind your node of interest to a variable outside 
the for-each, and test against that:

<xsl:variable name="here" select="."/>
<xsl:variable name="unique-rooms"
   select="//topics/topic/location[not(. =
             preceding::location)]" />
<xsl:for-each select="$unique-rooms">
  <xsl:if test="../location = $here">
     ...

Cheers,
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
======================================================================


XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list