Re: [xsl] Can a single XPath statement duplicate the functionality of this verbose <xsl:choose> statement?

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2011-10-23 18:21 -0700, Mark wrote:
> One more small question: I am confused by brackets in XPath;

The brackets specify a predicate used to keep or toss the nodes 
tested in the step from the next step of the location path.

> what is the difference between
> Location[name(@*)]

That is atypical.  It is addressing the child element <Location> and 
only keeping it if there is an attribute, because the name() function 
returns a non-empty string.  An empty string tests as false(), a 
non-empty string tests as true().  One wouldn't write the above 
because that particular predicate test is nonsensical in this 
situation (but not syntactically in error).

> Location/@*

That addresses the attributes of the child element <Location>.

> Location[@*]

That addresses the child element <Location> but only keeps it if the 
element has any attributes.  If the element doesn't have attributes, 
the XPath expression stops getting evaluated.

Chapter 3 section 2 of my XSLT book (free preview download on my web 
site) describes the syntax of XPath expressions in gory detail.

I hope this helps.

. . . . . . . . Ken


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