Re: sum and substring xpath needed

Hi Andrew,

> Please can someone give me the xpath that will sum() the following
> values into the select attribute of a variable (ie not a rtf).
>
> <colspec colwidth="38mm"/>
> <colspec colwidth="22mm"/>
> <colspec colwidth="26mm"/>
> <colspec colwidth="43mm"/>
>
> so something like:
>
> <xsl:variable name="total" 
>   select="sum(substring-before(//tgroup/colspec/@colwidth,'mm'))"/>
>
> ..this obviously fails because sum() requires a node-set and the
> substring functions return strings, but you get the idea. I dont
> think its possible to do in a single select but you never know,
> hopefully there's some trick available.

'Fraid not. You can create a RTF containing the values, convert that
to a node set and then sum the node set if you want. Otherwise you
have to use a recursive template of some kind. For example:

<xsl:template name="sum-column-widths">
  <xsl:param name="columns" select="colspec" />
  <xsl:param name="sum" select="0" />
  <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="$columns">
      <xsl:call-template name="sum-column-widths">
        <xsl:with-param name="columns"
          select="$columns[position() > 1]" />
        <xsl:with-param name="sum"
          select="$sum +
                  substring-before($columns[1]/@colwidth, 'mm')" />
      </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>
      <xsl:value-of select="$sum" />
    </xsl:otherwise>
  </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

or one of Dimitre's FXSL templates.

---

XPath 2.0 way is still (most recent WDs):

  sum( for $col in colspec
       return substring-before(@colwidth, 'mm') )

Cheers,

Jeni

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


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