Re: XPATH | union operator question

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Subject: Re: XPATH | union operator question
From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:40:10 -0500

At 2003-12-19 16:05 +0100, christof.hoeke@xxxxxxx wrote:

###TODO in the following xml: if the inner @color is there use it, otherwise use the outer @color

Use: ( @color | ../@color )[last()]

###XML <test> <line color="outer1"> <x color="inner1"/> </line> </test> ... <xsl:template match="x"> <xsl:value-of select="@color | parent::line/@color"/><br/> <xsl:value-of select="parent::line/@color | @color "/><br/> <xsl:value-of select="(@color | parent::line/@color)[1]"/><br/> <xsl:value-of select="(parent::line/@color | @color)[1] "/><br/>

In all four of the above, you are asking for the first in document order. XPath returns the nodes unordered but XSLT examines the returned nodes in document order. Since the <line> element is before the <x> element in document order, all four expressions are obtaining the colour attribute of <line>.

what does the | operator in "@color | parent::line/@color" select? only the most specific?

No, it only specifies the union of the two sets, with no duplicates. XSLT will then consider the resulting set always in document order.

In my suggestion at top, the last() predicate will select the last of the set, which if there is only one is the one itself, but if there are two it takes the inner one.

I hope this helps.

............... Ken


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Current Thread

XPATH | union operator question
- christof . hoeke - Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:05:53 -0500 (EST)
  - Michael Kay - Fri, 19 Dec 2003 10:55:09 -0500 (EST)
  - G. Ken Holman - Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:40:49 -0500 (EST) <=
    - Marc Liyanage - Sun, 21 Dec 2003 04:46:27 -0500 (EST)
      - Dimitre Novatchev - Sun, 21 Dec 2003 05:59:08 -0500 (EST)
      - Andreas L. Delmelle - Sun, 21 Dec 2003 08:33:53 -0500 (EST)
      - Marc Liyanage - Sun, 21 Dec 2003 09:22:52 -0500 (EST)

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RE: XPATH \| union operator qu, Michael Kay	Thread	Re: XPATH \| union operator qu, Marc Liyanage
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