Re: [xsl] Annoying XSLT code

Subject: Re: [xsl] Annoying XSLT code
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 15:07:55 -0400
At 08:35 AM 8/18/2005, David wrote:
> The first is selecting something using a variable and then applying
> templates to that variable, eg:
>
> <xsl:apply-templates select="$sections/section"/>

Why is this annoying? (I do it all the time:-) if the xpath to select
$sections is big and complicated and you need to query into it multiple
times then you either need to use a variable, or trust your system's
optimiser to implictly cache the result of the expression the first time
you use it.

Not only that, but it's a useful way to work around bugs in some widely deployed engines, which can have a hard time with gnarly XPaths but do okay when their constituent parts are bound to variables.


I agree that sometimes this can be overused and that tracking variable declarations across miles of files is no fun, but I also agree with David that it's a useful technique that can contribute to good code. A balance must be struck. Documenting your code (with comments if necessary) can also help the general problem of code opacity.

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 ======================================================================

Current Thread