Re: Generic sort using multiple columns

I think that when it gets to this level of complexity, you should
seriously consider generating a stylesheet containing xsl:sort elements
to reflect the chosen sort order. If you're running client side, the
extra processing cost probably won't be noticeable.

Michael Kay

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kyle Himmerick
Sent: 27 October 2003 05:48
To: XSL-List@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Generic sort using multiple columns


Hello,
I need to allow users to sort data by multiple columns (primary, secondary, tertiary etc).

I'm trying to keep it as generic as possible. For example, the user might choose to sort by column 1 asc, column 2 desc and column 3 asc. I'll handle this as a list control where they can change the sort order on each column (ie 1st click sorts column asc, 2nd click sorts column desc, 3rd click removes sort without affecting any other columns that may be sorted). So precedence will be in the order the elements appear (or left to right when displayed).

I am already doing a dynamic sort using:

<xsl:for-each select="DATA">
<xsl:sort select="*[name()=$orderby]" order="{$order}" data-type="{$ordertype}"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="."/>
</xsl:for-each>

My web page is passing in these three variables orderby, order and ordertype. This works well but does not meet my above requirement.

I can fight with constructing parameters to be passed into the stylesheet, but I'm stuck as to how I can actually apply them.

sample xml format:
<LIST>
<DATA>
 <firstName>Kyle</firstName>
 <phone>123.313.1234</phone>
 <job>grunt</job>
</DATA>
<DATA>
 <firstName>Joe</firstName>
 <phone>312.123.1234</phone>
 <job>boss</job>
</DATA>
</LIST>

maybe
$asc = 'firstName, job'
$desc = 'phone'

- or -

$orderby=firstName, phone, job
$order=asc,desc,asc
$type=text,number,text

Has anyone seen this done or have any ideas?

Thanks for your help.
-Kyle

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