Re: [xsl] Selecting first descendant text node

Subject: Re: [xsl] Selecting first descendant text node
From: Jeni Tennison <jeni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 11:59:46 +0000
Hi Christian,

>>> how do I select the first descendant text node of an element?
>>
>>item//text()[count((ancestor::item[1]//text())[1] | .)=1]

The count($node|.) = 1 pattern is a way of testing whether the context
node is the same as $node. In XPath 2.0 it would be equivalent to
$node == .

So the above is equivalent to:

  (ancestor::item[1]/text())[1] == 1

in other words - "is this node the same node as the first text node
descendant of this node's ancestor item?"

Another way of approaching it would be to have a general template that
matches text nodes within the item element, with a test inside that
checks whether a number should be added:

<xsl:template match="item//text()">
  <xsl:variable name="nearestItem" select="ancestor::item[1]" />
  <xsl:if test="count(($nearestItem//text())[1] | .) = 1">
    <xsl:value-of select="$nearestItem/@numbertext" />
  </xsl:if>
  <xsl:value-of select="." />
</xsl:template>

Another method would be to pass through the numbertext as a parameter,
but only pass it on (or do anything else with it) if the node has no
preceding siblings. When you applied templates from the item element,
pass the value of the numbertext attribute as a parameter:

<xsl:template match="item">
  <item>
    <xsl:apply-templates>
      <xsl:with-param name="numbertext" select="@numbertext" />
    </xsl:apply-templates>
  </item>
</xsl:template>

Then have a template for element descendants of item that only passes
on the parameter if it's the first child of its parent:

<xsl:template match="item//*">
  <xsl:param name="numbertext" />
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:choose>
      <xsl:when test="not($numbertext) or preceding-sibling::*">
        <xsl:apply-templates />
      </xsl:when>
      <xsl:otherwise>
        <xsl:apply-templates>
          <xsl:with-param name="numbertext" select="$numbertext" />
        </xsl:apply-templates>
      </xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

Finally have a template for text node descendants of the item element
- if it receives a value for the $numbertext parameter at all then
it's because it's the first text node descendant:

<xsl:template match="text()">
  <xsl:param name="numbertext" />
  <xsl:value-of select="$numbertext" />
  <xsl:value-of select="." />
</xsl:template>

[You can safely just give the value of $numbertext because if
nothing's passed through it defaults to an empty string, which gives
no value anyway.]

Cheers,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/


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