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Re: What does position() really return
- To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
- Subject: Re: [xsl] What does position() really return
- From: Wendell Piez <wapiez at mulberrytech dot com>
- Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 17:56:48 +0000
- References: <OE63MhvqgStMVhEUseb00000592@hotmail.com>
- Reply-To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
Jan,
You are getting bitten by whitespace-only text nodes in your source, that
may be invisible to your eye, but that are there (and getting counted)
nonetheless:
><Personen>^
>^^^^^<Person>Jan</Person>^
>^^^^^<Person>Peter</Person>^
>^^^^^<Person>George</Person>^
>^^^^^<Person>Danny</Person>^
></Personen>
So when apply-templates is fired in the Personen template, the nodes to be
processed are
1. A text node (contains whitespace)
2. <Person>Jan</Person>
3. A text node (contains whitespace)
4. <Person>Peter</Person>
etc.
Put a top-level element such as
<xsl:strip-space elements="Personen"/>
and these will be stripped.
But the rule is, unless otherwise instructed, an XML parser passes all
whitespace to the application.
These nodes are throwing off the count of your position. Sometimes they
don't matter. Here, they do.
Hope that helps,
Wendell
At 10:19 PM 3/15/01, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I'm trying to find out, what the position() function really returns.
>Browsing through the archive, some books and what's on the Internet
>and experimenting with it only increases my confusion. I have the
>following XML/XSL-code:
>
><?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
><Personen>
> <Person>Jan</Person>
> <Person>Peter</Person>
> <Person>George</Person>
> <Person>Danny</Person>
></Personen>
>
><?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
><xsl:stylesheet
> version="1.0"
> xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
>
><xsl:output encoding="iso-8859-1" method="html" indent="yes"/>
>
><xsl:template match="/">
> <html>
> <head>
> <title>Testfile</title>
> </head>
> <body>
> <xsl:apply-templates/>
> </body>
> </html>
></xsl:template>
>
><xsl:template match="Personen">
> <xsl:apply-templates/>
></xsl:template>
>
><xsl:template match="Person">
> <p>Output: <xsl:value-of select="position()"/>
> <xsl:text>, </xsl:text>
> <xsl:value-of select="."/>
> </p>
></xsl:template>
>
></xsl:stylesheet>
>
>Running this with Saxon (Instant-Saxon, version 6.2.1 under Win98)
>produces the following result (result 1):
>
>Output: 2, Jan
>Output: 4, Peter
>Output: 6, George
>Output: 8, Danny
>
>Changing the "Personen" template to:
>
><xsl:template match="Personen">
> <xsl:apply-templates>
> <xsl:sort select="."/>
> </xsl:apply-templates>
></xsl:template>
>
>generates (result 2):
>
>Output: 6, Danny
>Output: 7, George
>Output: 8, Jan
>Output: 9, Peter
>
>and once more changing "Personen" to:
>
><xsl:template match="Personen">
> <xsl:apply-templates select="Person">
> <xsl:sort select="."/>
> </xsl:apply-templates>
></xsl:template>
>
>results in (result 3):
>
>Output: 1, Danny
>Output: 2, George
>Output: 3, Jan
>Output: 4, Peter
>
>My confusion comes from the following:
>
>- I have expected the position numbers *always* in the range between 1 and 4
>- Why are the position values in result 1 multiples of 2 ?
>- Why are results 2 and 3 different (in terms of the position numbers) ?
>
>Thanks in advance
>Jan
>
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>BISS GmbH, Chaukenweg 12, D-26388 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
>Phone: +49 4423 9289-0, Fax: +49 4423 9289-99
>Dr. Jan Mazac, mailto: jwm@biss-net.com
>
>
>
> XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
======================================================================
Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@mulberrytech.com
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
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