Re: [xsl] finding the position of a node within a node set

[Michael Kay <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 26/08/2012 07:49, Ihe Onwuka wrote:
> Assuming Xpath 2.0 take a look at the index-of function.

No, index-of() is no use because it compares nodes by value rather than 
by identity.

The question is a bit confusing because you talk of a "node-set" which 
is XPath 1.0 terminology; but a set of nodes by definition has no 
particular order and therefore the nodes it contains have no particular 
position. The code you showed finds the position of a node within the 
sequence of nodes formed by sorting the nodes in the node-set into 
document order.

If you are using XPath 2.0, and if what you mean is a node sequence 
rather than a node set, then you can find the positions of a node within 
the sequence (the same node might be at more than one position...) using

for $i in 1 to count($nodes)) return $i[$nodes[$i] is $node]

Michael Kay
Saxonica