[xsl] XSLT to find missing characters?

Subject: [xsl] XSLT to find missing characters?
From: "Kirk Allen Evans" <kaevans@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 08:08:55 -0400
Was hoping for a few hundred extra pairs of eyes for this, maybe another
solution.  I need to find the first element in a node set that matches a
criteria.  If that node is not present in the node set, grab the next node
in the node set alphabetically.  Here's the example:

<beers>
	<beer name="Amstel Light"/>
	<beer name="Budweiser"/>
	<beer name="Bud Lite"/>
	<beer name="Coors"/>
	<beer name="Michelob"/>
	<beer name="Miller Lite"/>
	<beer name="Sam Adams"/>
</beers>

If "B" is sent as the parameter, "Budweiser" is output.  If "D" is sent,
then "Michelob" is output.  If no matches are found, the first element is
used for the output.  Here is my working stylesheet.  I was wondering if
anyone could think of a different approach to solving this problem, perhaps
with fewer string manipulations?


<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
	<xsl:param name="searchLetter" select="'D'"/>
	<xsl:variable name="alphabet" select="'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'"/>

	<xsl:output method="text"/>
	<xsl:template match="/">
		<xsl:variable name="beerName">
			<xsl:call-template name="CheckAlphabet">
				<xsl:with-param name="charPos"
select="string-length(substring-before($alphabet,$searchLetter)) + 1"/>
			</xsl:call-template>
		</xsl:variable>
		<xsl:value-of select="$beerName"/>
	</xsl:template>

	<xsl:template name="CheckAlphabet">
		<xsl:param name="charPos" select="1" />
		<xsl:variable name="alphabetLength" select="26" />
		<xsl:choose>
			<xsl:when test="$charPos &lt;= $alphabetLength">
				<xsl:choose>
					<xsl:when
test="/beers/beer[starts-with(@name,substring($alphabet,$charPos,1))][1]">
						<xsl:value-of
select="/beers/beer[starts-with(@name,substring($alphabet,$charPos,1))][1]/@
name"/>
					</xsl:when>
					<xsl:otherwise>
						<xsl:call-template name="CheckAlphabet">
							<xsl:with-param name="charPos" select="$charPos + 1"/>
						</xsl:call-template>
					</xsl:otherwise>
				</xsl:choose>
			</xsl:when>
			<xsl:otherwise>
				<xsl:value-of select="/beers/beer[1]/@name"/>
			</xsl:otherwise>
		</xsl:choose>
	</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Kirk Allen Evans
http://www.xmlandasp.net
"XML and ASP.NET", New Riders Publishing
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/073571200X


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