Re: xsl:sort and xsl:key

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Subject: Re: xsl:sort and xsl:key
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 12:07:14 +0100

Kerin:

I'd guess the most glaring pratfall is an elementary one (so apologies if it doesn't apply to you).

That is to mistake

<xsl:sort select="key()"/>

as having the effect of selecting the node-set retrieved by the key, and sorting them. Really what it does is sort the current node list using the value(s) of the node-set(s) retrieved by the key() expression (for each node in the list), as the sort key for an alphabetic or numeric sort.

Does that make sense? In other words, someone who hasn't mastered sorting might say this when they really mean:

<xsl:apply-templates select="key()">
  <xsl:sort/>
</xsl:apply-templates>

Getting, no doubt, very erratic results (including errors from using xsl:sort where it's not allowed). But without knowing what you're trying to do, I can't say if that describes your case.

Cheers,
Wendell

At 11:22 AM 7/11/01, you wrote:

Hi everyone,

This is a horribly vague question, but it would take a *very* long time to
give a proper background and explanation to what it is I'm doing just now:

Are there any issues I should know about when trying to perform something
like <xsl:sort select="key()"/> ?

I've tried it a couple of times with what I'm working on, and the results
have been erratic, to say the least. Does anybody know if any issues, common
pratfalls, etc?

Thanks,

Kerin

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Current Thread
xsl:sort and xsl:key Kerin Cosford - Wed, 11 Jul 2001 06:25:39 -0400 (EDT) Michael Kay - Wed, 11 Jul 2001 07:25:07 -0400 (EDT) Wendell Piez - Wed, 11 Jul 2001 12:13:13 -0400 (EDT) <= <Possible follow-ups> Dominic J. Blythe - Wed, 11 Jul 2001 06:43:05 -0400 (EDT)

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RE: xsl:sort and xsl:key, Michael Kay	Thread	RE: xsl:sort and xsl:key, Dominic J. Blythe
Re: Grouping repeating elemen, Wendell Piez	Date	Altering specific value then , mmackay
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