RE: problem with variable and position()

Hi,

> <xsl:template match="body">
>                     <xsl:element name="description">
>                        <xsl:apply-templates 
> select="text()[starts-with(normalize-space
> (),'Description')]" mode="description"/>
>                     </xsl:element>
> </xsl:template>
> <xsl:template 
> match="text()[starts-with(normalize-space(),'Description')]" 
> mode="description">
>                          <xsl:variable name="descPos" 
> select="position()"/>
>                          <xsl:apply-templates 
> select="text()[position()>$descPos]"/>
>                                            
> </xsl:template>

This template could as well be simply

  <xsl:template match="text()" mode="description">
    <xsl:variable name="descPos" select="position()"/>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="text()[position()>$descPos]"/>
  </xsl:template>

unless you have multiple different templates that match text nodes in "description" mode.

> <xsl:template match="text()[position()>$descPos]">
>                               <xsl:value-of select="."/>
> </xsl:template>  

And this should be

  <xsl:template match="text()">
    <xsl:value-of select="."/>
  </xsl:template>

or, you don't even need this, because the build-in template rule will take care of it
  
> the input documents. I tried to store the position of the 
> description text in the 
> descPos variable to use it later, but the above stylesheet 
> gives me an error of "Invalid 
> variable reference". How could I re-write the last template 
> so I avoid this error? 

For one, the descPos variable will be out of scope in the other template -- see the XSLT spec for variable scope. Also, variable references are not allowed in match patterns.

Cheers,

Jarno

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