Re: [xsl] Keys off of variable xml source

Subject: Re: [xsl] Keys off of variable xml source
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 18:27:53 -0500
Karl,

At 06:17 PM 3/31/2005, you wrote:
Is it legal to create a key off of an xml source stored as a variable?
So the key decleration might look like:

<xsl:key name="myKey" match="$external_xml_source//data" use="some_element"/>

This isn't legal, but not for the reason you think. In XSLT 1.0, a match pattern can't contain a variable reference.


If not, is there a workaround?

None is needed, really. If you declare the key normally


<xsl:key name="myKey" match="data" use="some_element"/>

and then be sure that when you call it, the context is inside $external_xml_source, you'll be fine:

<xsl:variable name="var" select="[anything you need to capture context]"/>
<xsl:for-each select="$external_xml_source">
  ... inside here the key will retrieve nodes from $external_xml_source,
      and $var still refers to whatever you need from outside it ...
</xsl:for-each>

Your XSLT processor has enough information here to do the right thing -- and keys are specified to work this way.

This is a FAQ.

Cheers,
Wendell


====================================================================== Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com 17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635 Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631 Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML ======================================================================

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