RE: XSLT to find missing characters?

Sort the search letter as a marker into the sequence of beers:

<xsl:variable name="x">
<xsl:copy-of select="beers"/>
<marker name="{$searchLetter}"/>
</xsl:variable>

<xsl:variable name="y">
<xsl:for-each select="exslt:node-set($x)/*">
  <xsl:sort select="@name"/>
  <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:variable>

Then find the next beer after the marker:

<xsl:value-of select="exslt:node-set($y)/
     marker/following-sibling::beer/@name"/>

This doesn't require the beers to be presorted. 

Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael.H.Kay@xxxxxxxxxxxx
work: Michael.Kay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> Kirk Allen Evans
> Sent: 12 July 2002 13:09
> To: Xsl-List@Lists. Mulberrytech. Com
> Subject:  XSLT to find missing characters?
> 
> 
> Was hoping for a few hundred extra pairs of eyes for this, 
> maybe another solution.  I need to find the first element in 
> a node set that matches a criteria.  If that node is not 
> present in the node set, grab the next node in the node set 
> alphabetically.  Here's the example:
> 
> <beers>
> 	<beer name="Amstel Light"/>
> 	<beer name="Budweiser"/>
> 	<beer name="Bud Lite"/>
> 	<beer name="Coors"/>
> 	<beer name="Michelob"/>
> 	<beer name="Miller Lite"/>
> 	<beer name="Sam Adams"/>
> </beers>
> 
> If "B" is sent as the parameter, "Budweiser" is output.  If 
> "D" is sent, then "Michelob" is output.  If no matches are 
> found, the first element is used for the output.  Here is my 
> working stylesheet.  I was wondering if anyone could think of 
> a different approach to solving this problem, perhaps with 
> fewer string manipulations?
> 
> 
> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" 
> xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
> 	<xsl:param name="searchLetter" select="'D'"/>
> 	<xsl:variable name="alphabet" 
> select="'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'"/>
> 
> 	<xsl:output method="text"/>
> 	<xsl:template match="/">
> 		<xsl:variable name="beerName">
> 			<xsl:call-template name="CheckAlphabet">
> 				<xsl:with-param name="charPos"
> select="string-length(substring-before($alphabet,$searchLetter
> )) + 1"/>
> 			</xsl:call-template>
> 		</xsl:variable>
> 		<xsl:value-of select="$beerName"/>
> 	</xsl:template>
> 
> 	<xsl:template name="CheckAlphabet">
> 		<xsl:param name="charPos" select="1" />
> 		<xsl:variable name="alphabetLength" select="26" />
> 		<xsl:choose>
> 			<xsl:when test="$charPos &lt;= $alphabetLength">
> 				<xsl:choose>
> 					<xsl:when 
> test="/beers/beer[starts-with(@name,substring($alphabet,$charP
> os,1))][1]">
> 						<xsl:value-of 
> select="/beers/beer[starts-with(@name,substring($alphabet,$cha
> rPos,1))][1]/@
> name"/>
> 					</xsl:when>
> 					<xsl:otherwise>
> 						
> <xsl:call-template name="CheckAlphabet">
> 							
> <xsl:with-param name="charPos" select="$charPos + 1"/>
> 						</xsl:call-template>
> 					</xsl:otherwise>
> 				</xsl:choose>
> 			</xsl:when>
> 			<xsl:otherwise>
> 				<xsl:value-of 
> select="/beers/beer[1]/@name"/>
> 			</xsl:otherwise>
> 		</xsl:choose>
> 	</xsl:template>
> </xsl:stylesheet>
> 
> Kirk Allen Evans
> http://www.xmlandasp.net
> "XML and ASP.NET", New Riders Publishing 
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735712> 00X
> 
> 
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> 
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