Re: preceding-sibling::text()

Hi Anders,

> What is the behavior of preceding-sibling::text() supposed to be?

It's supposed to gather all the text nodes that are siblings of the
context node and precede it.  (Note the *all*.)

> I would like to reference the text from within the element rule:
>
> <xsl:template match="element">
>     <mytag label="preceding-sibling::text()"/>
> </xsl:template>

I guess you mean:

<xsl:template match="element">
    <mytag label="{preceding-sibling::text()}"/>
</xsl:template>

You need the {}s or the value of the label attribute will be treated
as a literal value rather than something to be evaluated.

> This does not work. The first text (Label 1) is referenced from all
> elements and not just the first as I expect.
>
> Is this correct behavior?

It is the correct behaviour.  The processor gathers all the preceding
sibling text nodes.  When it evaluates these as a string to give the
value of the attribute it just takes the first and gives the string
value of that.

If you want the closest preceding text node, then you want:

  preceding-sibling::text()[1]

If you want the immediately preceding node, but only if it's a text
node, then you want:

  preceding-sibling::node()[1][self::text()]

I hope that helps,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/



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