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Re: Strange Sorting Problem

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Strange Sorting Problem
• From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@C...>
• Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 07:42:15 -0500
• In-reply-to: <OF72902CDA.BB61E6E4-ON80256DF1.00420663@b...>

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

At 2003-12-03 12:01 +0000, CBeach@b... wrote:
>i wish to sort dynamically

XPath expressions cannot be resolved dynamically in XSLT 1.0, they must be 
coded in the stylesheet and not obtained from any kind of source.

><staffware viewcompany="-1" viewdepartment="-1" viewwork="-1" search="0"
>company="ABN" sortfield="@caseref">

Above you have encoded an XPath expression.

>       <xsl:template match='/'>
>             <xsl:variable name="sort_field" select="staffware/@sortfield"/>
>...
>                <xsl:with-param name="sorted_field" select="$sort_field"/>
>...
>                   <xsl:sort select='$sorted_field' order='ascending'/>

This will produce the fixed string "@caseref" for every item being sorted, 
thus the result will be in document order.

The following would work:

       sortfield="caseref">

       <xsl:template match='/'>
             <xsl:variable name="sort_field" select="staffware/@sortfield"/>
...
                <xsl:with-param name="sorted_field" select="$sort_field"/>
...
                   <xsl:sort select='@*[name(.)=$sorted_field]'
                             order='ascending'/>

because then you are dealing with the names of XPath nodes, not with XPath 
expressions.

I hope this helps.

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

--
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G. Ken Holman                 mailto:gkholman@C...
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    • From: CBeach@b...

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