RE: Bug Sorting Zeros

Yes, that's exactly what's going on.  Since 'TOTAL' would convert to NaN,
Xalan, when sorting, chooses to sort all NaN values as if they were 0.  The
reason that 'TOTAL' appears after 0 is due to the following sentence from
the XSLT recommendation, section 10:

   "The sort must be stable: in the sorted list of nodes, any sub list that
   has sort keys that all compare equal must be in document order."

This is one of the great, unanswered questions:  since NaN is not ordered,
how do you order it in a sort?

Maybe one of the working group members can comment as to whether or not the
working group is going to address this?

Dave



                                                                                                                                
                    "Gareth Sylvester-Bradley"                                                                                  
                    <gareth.sbradley@xxxxxxxxxx        To:     <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>                                
                    e.com>                             cc:     (bcc: David N Bertoni/CAM/Lotus)                                 
                    Sent by:                           Subject:     RE:  Bug Sorting Zeros                                 
                    owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx                                                                                 
                    rytech.com                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                
                    06/25/2001 09:51 AM                                                                                         
                    Please respond to xsl-list                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                



> BEFORE THE SORT: 0,1,2,3,4....52,TOTAL
> AFTER THE SORT (ascending order): 0,TOTAL,1,2,3,4....52
> AFTER THE SORT (descending order): 52,51,50......3,2,1,0,TOTAL

Doesn't this look more like the string 'TOTAL' is being sorted as if it
were
zero (and a stable sorted used)?



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