Re: [xsl] xpath query

Hi Abel,
No I am not the same person. Why did you think that?
I was reading the thread and was trying to fully understand the
requirement and solutions provided. I used the original XML to play
with creating my stylesheets to see what I could do with it.

Did I do something incorrect when I asked my questions in the same
thread?  Should I have posted a new message.  Please tell me as I am
new to this list and dont want to make a bad impression.

I do appreciate your comments on my questions, they certainly help me
get all of this straight in my head.

Again thanks.

Sean

On Jan 18, 2008 7:56 PM, Abel Braaksma <abel.online@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Sean Tiley wrote:
> > Hi there,
> > I am still struggling with mostof this stuff, but I have a question
> > related to the original data.
> >
>
> Are you by any chance the same one as the original poster, who posted to
> this list with the same subjectline and the same data (going by and
> signing by the name "Senthil Nathan R")?
>
> >
> > If I create the following stylesheet I get 100 100 output
> >
> > <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; version="2.0">
> >     <xsl:template match="ROOT">
> >         <html>
> >             <xsl:value-of select="LEVEL2/*/*[@apply='1']"/>
> >         </html>
> >     </xsl:template>
> > </xsl:stylesheet>
> >
> > What I am not clear on is why does this return values and not nodes?
> >
>
> That is why the instruction is called "value-of": that means, like you
> said, that it will return values, and not nodes. If you want nodes, you
> must use xsl:copy-of instead.
>
> > Or is this really returning both nodes and I am getting the value of
> > each one because of the <xsl:value-of select="..."/> expression?
> >
>
> You are saying it right there. You are getting the "value of" ...
> because of using the "value-of" instruction... ;)
>
> > As far as I can figure the expression ROOT/LEVEL2/*/*[@apply='1']"
> > says give me the  nodes that have the arrtibute apply=1 and are
> > grandchildren of level2.
> >
>
> Yes, that is precisely what the expression says. But you are mixing the
> XPath expression and the XSLT instruction here. In XPath you say "give
> me those nodes", then you instruct XSLT to use the value of those nodes,
> and not the nodes themselves (again, that would be xsl:copy-of).
>
> > I kind of though to get both values I would have to do something like
> >
> > <xsl:template match="ROOT">
> >       <xsl:for-each select="LEVEL2/*/*[@apply='1']">
> >            <xsl:value-of select="."/>
> >       </xsl:for-each>
> > </xsl:template>
> >
> > Sorry if this seems really trivial but it helps me to better understand.
>
> In XSLT 1.0, the first value of a node set was returned, which would be
> "100" in your case. In XSLT 2.0 (which is what you are using), this
> changed because the underlying model changed: everything is a sequence
> now. The resultset of an XPath statement is a sequence of items (nodes,
> text nodes, attributes, strings etc) and the value of these items is
> taken, and finally these values are separated by whatever is in the
> attribute "separator":
>
> <xsl:value-of select="(2 to 10)[. le 5]" separator=":" />
>
> will output the string "2:3:4:5" (i.e., all values lower or equal to
> five, separated by the colon).
>
> The for-each is hardly ever necessary and I believe it is often
> over-used. Instead of for-each you can just as well use
> xsl:apply-templates. There are, however, exceptions (notably: for-each
> can work on any item type, whereas apply-templates only works on a
> nodeset). Depending on what you want, you are right by your statement
> that you need something to iterate over, or apply templates on the nodes
> in the set. However, if you only need the first node, you can of course
> use the predicate [1], or another number if you do not want the first:
>
>  <xsl:value-of select="*[@apply='1'][1]" />
>
> I think many people find this at first confusing: when do you get a node
> set, when do you get one node, when do you get a sequence or a sequence
> of nodes, when do you need apply-templates, when for-each or
> for-each-group etc etc. Getting it straight is vital for working with
> XSLT without frustration.
>
>
> HTH,
> Cheers,
> -- Abel Braaksma
>
>



-- 
Sean Tiley
sean.tiley@xxxxxxxxx
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