Re: a simple question about node tests

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Subject: Re: a simple question about node tests
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 14:13:30 -0400

Robert,

At 01:20 PM 5/22/2003, you wrote:

  a while back, i read somewhere (can't remember where, darn it)
an explanation of node tests that cleared up a minor confusion
i've had for a while.  to recap first...

Probably here ... I think we rehearsed this issue a couple of months back.

  so what exactly does "*" mean?  a while back, i read
that "*" doesn't mean "element" so much as it does "the
primary node type along that axis", which for the child
axis is an element node, for the attribute axis is the
attribute node, etc.

  once i read this, it made perfect sense.  did i read
that correctly?  is that how one should interpret the
"*" node test?

Yes, and yes.

The authoritative reference for all such questions of definition (that is, respecting XPath Location Path syntax) is the XPath 1.0 Recommendation. Find it at http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath. (This issue is covered in section 2.3, "Node Tests".)

In fact, I'd go so far as to say any XSLTer who wants to master the language will eventually find themselves looking at this document and the related XSLT spec, at http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt. (They're really not as scary as they're sometimes made out to be.)

Other resources such as Mike's book _XSLT: A Programmer's Reference_ are also reliable and complete. But there's nothing like the horse's mouth when you really want to know the real deal.

Cheers,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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Current Thread
a simple question about node tests Robert P. J. Day - Thu, 22 May 2003 13:22:08 -0400 (EDT) Mike Brown - Thu, 22 May 2003 14:01:25 -0400 (EDT) J.Pietschmann - Thu, 22 May 2003 14:05:02 -0400 (EDT) Wendell Piez - Thu, 22 May 2003 14:15:42 -0400 (EDT) <= Robert P. J. Day - Thu, 22 May 2003 14:42:48 -0400 (EDT)

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