Re: [xsl] Does the count() function require access to the whole subtree?

[Andrew Welch <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 12 January 2014 11:10, Costello, Roger L. <costello@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> A couple days ago Michael Kay wrote:
>
>         Inspection operations on an element are operations
>         that can be performed while positioned at the start tag.
>
>         Inspection operations include: count(), exists(), name().
>
>         Absorption operations are operations that require access
>         to the whole subtree.
>
>         Absorption operations include: string(), data(), xsl:value-of
>
> Michael, doesn't the count() function require access to the whole subtree? How would a count be conducted by sitting at the top of a subtree? Perhaps you meant to say that the count() function is an absorption operation?

I wondered this too... I'm guessing you could do a look-ahead of the
xml parsing the structure without any text nodes, then you have the
'metadata' without the content.  Will be interesting to find out...



-- 
Andrew Welch
http://andrewjwelch.com