RE: [xsl] xpath // query

["Michael Kay" <michael dot h dot kay at ntlworld dot com>]

> select="A//C"
> This would make the processor to search for C that are
> children of A iin the
> whole document.. This is definitely not fast
> select="A//B//C"
> would make the processor to search for all Cs under all Bs under A.
> This is slightly better approach..

Fascinating. That's three respondents who were confident enough to reply,
but guessed wrong!

It feels as if "A//B//C" gives the processor more information to go on, and
therefore it should be able to reduce the search space. In fact, for a
clever processor, the search space will be the same, and the only difference
is that there is an extra (redundant) test to perform. But for a processor
that adopts a simplistic execution strategy, that is (A//B)//C, the search
space is definitely larger.

Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael.H.Kay@ntlworld.com
work: Michael.Kay@softwareag.com


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