Re: [xsl] self axis vs .

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

At 08:59 AM 6/6/2008, Andrew wrote:
> An interesting practice I've come across at a client's site is instead
> of using . they use self:: instead...
>
> So instead of:
>
> <xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="other"/>
>
> you have
>
> <xsl:apply-templates select="self::elem" mode="other"/>
>
> and instead of:
>
> .//whatever
>
> you have:
>
> self::elem//whatever
>
> While it seemed a little odd to start with, their argument of it helps
> locate where you are (especially when . is far away from the match
> pattern that's normally used to discover the current node) is
> beginning to grow on me...

It also works to test whether the current node is actually an 'elem' 
when you process it or traverse from it.

Since when it isn't, it is silently filtered out, this could be 
regarded as either a feature or a bug. If this isn't desired as a 
feature, it may be a bug (or a bug waiting to happen), or perhaps at 
best gilding the lily.

But it might serve as a sideways incentive for maintenance 
programmers to learn their XPath. :-)

Cheers,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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