Re: Select nodes with equal position

Hi David,
  I have a very basic question.

Why this should not work -
<xsl:template match="entry">
  <xsl:value-of select="../../colspec[position()]/@colname"/>
</xsl:template>

My doubt came because..
If we use 
<xsl:value-of select="../../colspec[2]/@colname"/>
i.e. if we use a static number as predicate of colspec , it expectedly
gets(to my expectation!) the 2nd colspec child of table.

But should'nt this <xsl:value-of select="../../colspec[position()]/@colname"/>
do the same thing? 

If I run this program:
<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
 
 <xsl:output method="text" />  

 <xsl:template match="/">
   <xsl:apply-templates select="table/row/entry" />
 </xsl:template>
 
<xsl:template match="entry">
  <xsl:value-of select="../../colspec[position()]/@colname"/>
</xsl:template>
 
 </xsl:stylesheet> 

With XML:
<table>
 <colspec colname="c1"/>
 <colspec colname="c2"/>
 <colspec colname="c3"/>
 <row>
   <entry colname="c1">r1_1</entry>
   <entry colname="c2">r1_2</entry>
   <entry colname="c3">r1_2</entry>
 </row>
</table>

The output is c1c1c1 . i.e. the instruction <xsl:value-of
select="../../colspec[position()]/@colname"/> always picks element
<colspec colname="c1"/> (i.e. 1st one)..

This amazes me.. Can you please clarify the rationale behind the
complex expression you wrote. And why simply [position()] should not
work.

Best regards,

> If you really object to variables
> 
>  <xsl:value-of select="../../colspec[position() = count(current()/preceding-sibling::entry)+1]/@colname"/>
> 
> but that's likely to be slower
> 
> David
> 
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