RE: generate full xpath name to an attribute?

> yikes! - looks like the simplest way is to have:
>
> <xsl:template match="name">
>         <xsl:for-each select="ancestor-of-self::*">
>           <xsl:value-of select="name()" /><xsl:text>/</xsl:text>
>         </xsl:for-each>
>         <xsl:value-of select="." />
>       </xsl:template>
>

That won't work if you want to generate a path that's independent of the
namespace context.

 If you want the path expression to be
context-independent then you need to generate steps of the form

*[local-name()='x' and namespace-uri()='y']

Also, the code above generates a path such as a/b/c/d which will select
many elements, whereas you probably want one that selects a single
element such as a[3]/b[2]/c[89]/d[1].

 But in this case the "tumbler"
path of the form *[23]/*[2]/*[17] is simpler, and avoids namespace
problems entirely.

As you see, there are multiple solutions to this requirement - which is
because there are actually a number of different requirements. This is
why there is no standard function.....

---
ray tayek http://tayek.com/ actively seeking mentoring or telecommuting work
vice chair orange county java users group http://www.ocjug.org/
hate spam? http://samspade.org/ssw/