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Re: Equals (=)
- To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
- Subject: Re: [xsl] Equals (=)
- From: Wendell Piez <wapiez at mulberrytech dot com>
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 16:42:39 -0400
- Reply-To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
Matt--
At 03:43 PM 9/25/01, you wrote:
>Hello all,
> I am sure this question is implementation-specific, and probably just
>for my own knowledge, but perhaps a generalized response is possible.
>
> How does XSL compare two elements to see if they are equal?
>i.e. <xsl:if test = "$element1=$element2>
>
>In my current situation(comparing using Saxon), doing this seems to be
>tremendously faster than comparing all of the children of element1 and
>element2. My assumption is that the parser hashes up each element and
>compares them. Is this correct?
Not exactly. It's only comparing string values of the nodes. And no, it's
not implementation-specific. (How it's done internally may be, but the
rules of what constitutes "equal" are not.)
The XPath spec [3.4] is really the place to go for this: it's a bit
complex, but clearly enough explained. You need to know that the value of
an element node is the concatenation of the values of its text node
descendants.
Cheers,
Wendell
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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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