Re: [xsl] Repetitive variable definitions

Subject: Re: [xsl] Repetitive variable definitions
From: cknell@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:51:22 -0400
(Picture that I now have my right hand over my heart.)

I promise that I will never give a hasty answer again.

I did not notice that your input document had multiple table elements. I was working under the impression that there was only one, and based my answer on that.

If you indeed have three sibling table elements, then there are going to be three <td> elements matching the XPath "table/tr/td[last()]".

If that is true then there is no way that you can have one variable to hold three different values. (Certainly not in XSLT/XPath 1.0).

Given the example XML input document, you will necessarily have to create three different variables to hold the three values you want to capture.

If you want to re-think your example input document, I promise to make a thorough examination of it before responding again.
-- 
Charles Knell
cknell@xxxxxxxxxx - email



-----Original Message-----
From:     Whitney, Dan \(CanWest Interactive\) <DWhitney@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent:     Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:08:26 -0500
To:       <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:  RE: Re: [xsl] Repetitive variable definitions

Maybe I'm missing something here, but when I try your example with a
slightly revised stylesheet I now get noofcols var always = 1

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
version="1.0">
<!-- your example -->    
        <xsl:variable name="noofcols"
select="/example/table/tr/td[last()]/@col"/>
        
        <xsl:variable name="bg-color">
            <xsl:choose>
                <xsl:when test="$noofcols = 1">
                    <xsl:value-of select="'red'"/>
                </xsl:when>
                <xsl:when test="$noofcols = 3">
                    <xsl:value-of select="'blue'"/>
                </xsl:when> 
            </xsl:choose>
        </xsl:variable>
    
 <!-- and added this -->
    <xsl:template match="example">
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </xsl:template>

    
    <xsl:template match="table">
        <p><xsl:value-of select="$noofcols"/></p>
        <table border="1">
            <tr>
                <td align="center" colspan="{$noofcols}">
                    <xsl:value-of select="@desc"/>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="tr"/>    
        </table>
    </xsl:template>
    
    
    <xsl:template match="tr">
        <tr bgcolor="{$bg-color}">
            <xsl:apply-templates select="td"/>    
        </tr>
    </xsl:template>
    
    
    <xsl:template match="td">
        <td bgcolor="{$bg-color}">
            td col variable = <xsl:value-of select="$noofcols"/>
        </td>
    </xsl:template>
    
</xsl:stylesheet>
 


________________________________

Daniel Whitney
  CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications
Inc. 	
  1450 Don Mills Rd 	
  Don Mills ON M3B 2X7 	
  Tel: (416) 442-2957 	
  Fax: (416) 442-2968 	
Email: dwhitney@xxxxxxxxxxx 	


-----Original Message-----
From: cknell@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:cknell@xxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 2:38 PM
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Re: [xsl] Repetitive variable definitions

Ooops! 

On rexamining the sample input document, I see that the top-most element
is <example>, so the XPath expression should be:

<xsl:variable name="noofcols"
select="/example/table/tr/td[last()]/@col"/>


--
Charles Knell
cknell@xxxxxxxxxx - email



-----Original Message-----
From:     Abel Braaksma <abel.online@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent:     Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:28:41 +0200
To:       xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject:  Re: [xsl] Repetitive variable definitions

In Charles example he assumed that the root of your input document is 
the table element. Maybe you have another root?

to find out whether or not it is somewhere in your doc and you just made

a typo, use the descendants-or-self syntax: (//td)[last()]/@col

it is considered bad coding style, so when you find out that the above 
statement returns something, you should unwind the path again. If you 
may have td elements on last position that do not have an @col 
attribute, you can remove them from the selection path with: 
(//td)[@col][last()]/@col

If you want to know whether or not the node is selected but perhaps 
contains something not visible, use count(....) around the whole thing. 
If you get "1" then the @col is empty or contains spaces, otherwise, the

select statement still has a path mismatch.

hth,
-- Abel Braaksma

Whitney, Dan (CanWest Interactive) wrote:
> Charles, 
>
> Thanks for the fast response, however the noofcols variable is always
> empty.
>
> Dan
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> Daniel Whitney
>   CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications
> Inc. 	
>   1450 Don Mills Rd 	
>   Don Mills ON M3B 2X7 	
>   Tel: (416) 442-2957 	
>   Fax: (416) 442-2968 	
> Email: dwhitney@xxxxxxxxxxx 	
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cknell@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:cknell@xxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 1:36 PM
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [xsl] Repetitive variable definitions
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
> version="1.0">
>     
>     <xsl:variable name="noofcols"
select="/table/tr/td[last()]/@col"/>
>
>     <xsl:variable name="bg-color">
>        <xsl:choose>
>           <xsl:when test="$noofcols = 1" select="'red'">
>           <xsl:when test="$noofcols = 3 select="'blue'">
>           <xsl:otherwise/>
>        </xsl:choose>
>     <xsl:variable>
>     
>     <xsl:template match="table">
>         <table border="1">
>             <tr>
>                 <td align="center" colspan="{$noofcols}">
>                     <xsl:value-of select="@desc"/>
>                 </td>
>             </tr>
>             <xsl:apply-templates select="tr"/>    
>         </table>
>      </xsl:template>
>     
>     
>     <xsl:template match="tr">
>         <tr bgcolor="{$bg-color}">
>            <xsl:apply-templates select="td"/>    
>         </tr>
>     </xsl:template>
>     
>     
>     <xsl:template match="td">
>         <td bgcolor="{$bg-color}">
>         td col variable = <xsl:value-of select="$noofcols"/>
>       </td>
>     </xsl:template>
>     
> </xsl:stylesheet>
>
> --
> Charles Knell
> cknell@xxxxxxxxxx - email
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:     Whitney, Dan \(CanWest Interactive\) <DWhitney@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent:     Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:24:24 -0500
> To:       <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject:  [xsl] Repetitive variable definitions
>
> I have a question of a general nature concerning variables and xsl
> templates. I like to break my XSL down into templates as I find them
> much easier to work with, but I find it very limiting when I have to
> keep redefining the same variables over and over in different
templates
> with different contexts.
>
> In my very simplistic example, I have had to define a variable
> "noofcols" once in each template for a total of 3 times. I would love
to
> only define it once and have it "cascade" down the child templates
> without making the XSL a single template. I don't think this is
> possible, but you never know until you ask.
>
> So my question is - can I define the "noofcols" only once whether
> variable, parameter template or any other method, or am I stuck with
> defining it as shown?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Dan Whitney
>
> XML:
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="example.xsl"?>
> <example>
>     <table desc="Example: 1 col table">
>         <tr>
>             <td col="1">col 1</td>
>         </tr>
>     </table>
>     <table desc="Example: 2 col table">
>         <tr>
>             <td col="1">col 1</td>
>             <td col="2">col 2</td>
>         </tr>
>     </table>
>     <table desc="Example: 3 col table">
>         <tr>
>             <td col="1">col 1</td>
>             <td col="2">col 2</td>
>             <td col="3">col 2</td>
>         </tr>
>     </table>
> </example>
>
> XSL:
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
> version="1.0">
>     <xsl:template match="table">
>         <xsl:variable name="noofcols"  select="tr/td[last()]/@col"/>
>         <table border="1">
>             <tr>
>                 <td align="center"  colspan="{$noofcols}">
>                     <xsl:value-of select="@desc"/>
>                 </td>
>             </tr>
>             <xsl:apply-templates select="tr"/>    
>         </table>
>      </xsl:template>
>     
>     
>     <xsl:template match="tr">
>         <xsl:variable name="noofcols"
> select="self::tr[1]/td[last()]/@col"/>
>         <tr>
>             <xsl:choose>
>                 <xsl:when test="$noofcols = 1">
>                     <xsl:attribute name="bgcolor">red</xsl:attribute>
>                 </xsl:when>
>                 <xsl:otherwise>
>                 </xsl:otherwise>
>             </xsl:choose>
>             <xsl:apply-templates select="td"/>    
>         </tr>
>     </xsl:template>
>     
>     
>     <xsl:template match="td">
>         <xsl:variable name="noofcols"
> select="parent::tr[1]/td[last()]/@col"/>
>         <td>
>         <xsl:choose>
>             <xsl:when test="$noofcols = 3">
>                 <xsl:attribute name="bgcolor">blue</xsl:attribute>
>             </xsl:when>
>         </xsl:choose>
>         td col variable = <xsl:value-of select="$noofcols"/>
>       </td>
>     </xsl:template>
>     
> </xsl:stylesheet>

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