Re: [xsl] position() from the attribute axis for getting the position of the parent in respect to its siblings

[David Carlisle <davidc@xxxxxxxxx>]

> for $elem in ../../day return position()
> 
> Or should I read this as the "position of the current element in the 
> current context, which is the same as current()/position and not the 
> position that $elem takes in the set of nodes ../../day".


No, current() selects a single item, (or is an error if there is no
current item) so current()/position() is 1 if it's not an error
(which it will be if there is no current item or if it is not a node)

on the other hand position() (on its own) returns the current position
in the current sequence, compare

FLWOR expressions don't change the current item or position() so if you
evaluate position() at teh top level of a FLWOR it gives the same value
each iteration of teh loop, the value it would have given if evaluated
outside the loop.



<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
  
<xsl:variable name="x">
<x>A</x>
<x>B</x>
<x>C</x>
</xsl:variable>

<xsl:template name="main">
  <xsl:for-each select="$x/*">
====
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
position: <xsl:value-of select="position()"/>
current()/position(): <xsl:value-of select="current()/position()"/>
for: <xsl:value-of select="for $e in 1 to 3 return position()"/>
===
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>


$ saxon8 -it main posn.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
====
A
position: 1
current()/position(): 1
for: 1 1 1
===
  
====
B
position: 2
current()/position(): 1
for: 2 2 2
===
  
====
C
position: 3
current()/position(): 1
for: 3 3 3
===
  


see, 
position() gives 1,2,3 
 current()/position() always gives 1
for $e in 1 to 3 return position() just does position() 3 times.

David