Thanks!

This allowed me to handle the additional requirement to allow the user
to specify ascending or descending.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Welch [mailto:andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 11:36 AM
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re:  Dynamically define number of xsl:sort stmts using
parameters

On 3/28/07, Angela Williams <Angela.Williams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Aha!
>
> My esteemed colleague came up with a better idea - gosh, I hate it
when
> I forget the power of xpath!
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <employees>
>   <employee hireDate="04/23/1999">
>     <last>Hill</last>
>     <first>Phil</first>
>     <salary>100000</salary>
>   </employee>
>
>   <employee hireDate="09/01/1998">
>     <last>Herbert</last>
>     <first>Johnny</first>
>     <salary>95000</salary>
>   </employee>
>
>   <employee hireDate="08/20/2000">
>     <last>Hill</last>
>     <first>Graham</first>
>     <salary>89000</salary>
>   </employee>
>
>   <sort order="1">last</sort>
>   <sort order="2">first</sort>
> </employees>
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
> version="2.0" xmlns:saxon="http://saxon.sf.net/">
>
>   <xsl:output method="text" />
>
>   <xsl:template match="employees">
>     <xsl:variable name="sort1" select="sort[@order='1']" />
>     <xsl:variable name="sort2" select="sort[@order='2']" />
>     <xsl:variable name="sort3" select="sort[@order='3']" />
>     <xsl:variable name="sort4" select="sort[@order='4']" />
>
>     <xsl:for-each select="employee">
>       <xsl:sort
>           select="if ($sort1) then saxon:evaluate($sort1) else 'foo'"
/>
>       <xsl:sort
>           select="if ($sort2) then saxon:evaluate($sort2) else 'foo'"
/>
>       <xsl:sort
>           select="if ($sort3) then saxon:evaluate($sort3) else 'foo'"
/>
>       <xsl:sort
>           select="if ($sort4) then saxon:evaluate($sort4) else 'foo'"
/>
>
>
>       Last: <xsl:apply-templates select="last" />
>       First: <xsl:apply-templates select="first" />
>       Salary: <xsl:apply-templates select="salary" />
>       Hire Date: <xsl:apply-templates select="@hireDate" />
>       <xsl:text>
>       </xsl:text>
>     </xsl:for-each>
>   </xsl:template>
> </xsl:stylesheet>
>

Here's a way of sorting dynamically without extensions:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:fn="fn">

<xsl:variable name="employees" select="/employees/employee"/>
<xsl:variable name="sortValues" select="/employees/sort"
as="xs:string+"/>

<xsl:function name="fn:performSort" as="element()+">
	<xsl:param name="list" as="element()+"/>
	<xsl:param name="sortKey" as="xs:string+"/>

	<xsl:variable name="sortedList" as="element()+">
		<xsl:for-each select="$list">
			<xsl:sort select="*[name() = $sortKey[1]]"/>
			<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
		</xsl:for-each>
	</xsl:variable>

	<xsl:sequence select="if ($sortKey[2]) then

fn:performSort($sortedList, subsequence($sortKey, 2))
							else
$sortedList"/>
</xsl:function>

<xsl:template match="/">
	<xsl:sequence select="fn:performSort($employees, $sortValues)"/>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

You call the performSort() function with a list of elements to sort,
and a list of child element names to sort with, and it recursively
sorts by each one.

hope this helps,

cheers
andrew