position() and last()

[R. Mark Volkmann]

Thanks to all who responded! I'm back on track now.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Kay" <http://xquery.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>
To: "'R. Mark Volkmann'" <http://xquery.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>; <http://xquery.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 3:01 AM
Subject: RE:  position() and last()


> A "for" expression does not change the focus (that is, the context item,
> position, or size). This is a common mistake for anyone accustomed to
> xsl:for-each - I make it frequently myself.
>
> In XQuery (but not XPath) you can assign an extra variable to represent
the
> current position, thus:
>
> for $i at $pos in $items return
> ($i, if ($pos = count($items)) then () else ",")
>
> Alternatively you can iterate over the positions:
>
> (for $n in 1 to count($items)-1 return ($items[$n], ",")), $items[last()])
>
> In many cases (but not this one) the insertion of separators between items
> can be achieved using the string-join function:
>
> string-join($items, ',')
>
> position() and last() are available in XQuery but they are only really
> useful inside predicates.
>
> Michael Kay
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: http://xquery.com/mailman/listinfo/talk
> > [mailto:http://xquery.com/mailman/listinfo/talk] On Behalf Of R. Mark Volkmann
> > Sent: 01 September 2004 04:15
> > To: http://xquery.com/mailman/listinfo/talk
> > Subject:  position() and last()
> >
> > I know how to use these functions in XSLT, but I haven't
> > figured out how to
> > use them in XQuery.
> > For example, suppose I want to put a comma between items, but
> > not after the
> > last one.
> > I could do something like this.
> >
> > for $i in $items
> > return (
> >   $i,
> >   if (position() = last()) then () else ","
> > )
> >
> > This doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > http://xquery.com/mailman/listinfo/talk
> > http://xquery.com/mailman/listinfo/talk
> >
>
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