[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: Question regarding XSLT number function

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Question regarding XSLT number function
• From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@C...>
• Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 09:59:25 -0500
• In-reply-to: <830BF4914C3C4B4EB1C438D93ABF897A0443C1@l...>

At 2004-02-25 08:09 -0600, Bill Riegel wrote:
>I tried to use the follow line to determine if an input was a number or not.
>
><xsl:if test="number( input ) = number( input )" >

Yes, that is what I teach in my class for checking for a 
number.  Specifically, I use it to help people use this in a predicate as 
in the following sum of all children that are numbers:

    sum(*[number(.)=number(.)])

... otherwise something as simple as an empty child element messes up the 
sum to produce NaN.

>I read somewhere that if input is not a number,  the function returns NaN,
>and NaN is not equal to NaN so this should work.

Yes, I believe this to be the proper justification for the interpretation.

>If my input is "75 F", Xalan 2.5.2 says it is a number, 75, but
>I have tried it against xmlspy and another IDE called Stylus Studio, and
>they but indicate it is not a number.
>
>Is there a problem with Xalan number implementation ?

Must be ... "75 F" is not a number in the IEEE numbering scheme.

I hope this helps.

........................... Ken

p.s. XSLT and XPath questions would be better posted to the following list:

   http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list

There are a number of subscribers who would enthusiastically respond to 
such questions.

There is also an *excellent* FAQ at:

   http://www.dpawson.co.uk


--
Public courses: Spring 2004 world tour of hands-on XSL instruction
Each week:   Monday-Wednesday: XSLT/XPath; Thursday-Friday: XSL-FO
United States: Washington, DC March 15; San Francisco, CA March 22
Finland April 26; Hong Kong May 17; Germany May 24; London June 07
World-wide on-site corporate, government & user group XML training

G. Ken Holman                 mailto:gkholman@C...
Crane Softwrights Ltd.          http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/x/
Box 266, Kars, Ontario CANADA K0A-2E0    +1(613)489-0999 (F:-0995)
Male Breast Cancer Awareness  http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/x/bc

• References:
  • Question regarding XSLT number function
    • From: Bill Riegel <BRiegel@l...>

• Prev by Date: Re: Quick question regarding XPath
• Next by Date: Re: parsing xsl file in java
• Previous by thread: Question regarding XSLT number function
• Next by thread: RE: Question regarding XSLT number function
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread