[xsl] Find distinct nodes from a sequence

[Pushkar Khadilkar <Pushkar_Khadilkar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi List,

I have a function getNodes() that returns a sequence of nodes( >= 1) from
source tree by xsl:sequence statement.

I want to remove duplicate nodes from this sequence.

The duplicate nodes in the sequence are not different nodes from source tree
with same values for some attributes but actually refer to same node in source
tree.

For example , Consider following tree

<person name=a/>
<person name=b/>

The function getNodes() might return a sequence containing 2 nodes both of
which refer to same node (<person name=a/>) of the source tree.

I cannot use some logic like  select node whose generate-id(.) is not equal
to generate-id(preceding-node) as the duplicate nodes actually refer to same
node of source tree and hence preceding wont work.

Im using Saxon HE 8.8 Java.

Is there a function for selecting unique nodes from a sequence ?

There was a saxon:distinct function in older versions of saxon but is not
present in Saxon 8.

Any help in this regard is highly appreciated.

Thanks ,
Pushkar Khadilkar

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