Re: [xsl] the nearest ancestor with the attribute

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

At 01/01/18 13:07 +0000, Jeni Tennison wrote:
> Since I started this confusion in the first place, can I summarise and
> check that I've got it right now?
>
> A node set is always unordered until you do anything with it like
> iterate over it, get a value from it or whatever.

I find it is more succinct to say: "Nodes from the attribute and namespace 
axes are always in an arbitrary implementation-defined order, while nodes 
from all other axes are in proximity order within location step expressions 
and in document order in location path expressions."

Note that attribute and namespace axes are *not* unordered (you can index 
into them), just that the order cannot be relied upon.  There is an 
important nuance.

Since a predicate can be applied to a location path expression, as in the 
union of two other path expressions, that predicate is always evaluated in 
document order.

xsl:value-of and xsl:for-each deal with location path expressions (not 
location step expressions), therefore their evaluation is done in document 
order.

This has proven to be a simple rule-of-thumb for students.

.................... Ken


--
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