Re: can a function return an element of a nodeset

Thanks a lot Martin,
Matthieu.

Matthieu Ricaud-Dussarget wrote:

I'm wondering if there is a way to make a function returning an element
(or a kind of "pointer" to an element) of a another document.
Something like :

<xsl:function name="my:get-node" as="item()*">
<xsl:param name="id"/>
<xsl:copy-of select="document('foo.xml')/bar[@id='$id']"/>

<xsl:sequence select="document('foo.xml')/bar[@id=$id]"/>
returns the node(s) itself(themselves), without copying.

</xsl:function>

The xsl:copy instruction will here copy the node wilthout his contexte,
but I would like to be able to perform xpath test which need the context
of this node within foo.xml, such as :

<xsl:value-of select="count(my:get-node('123')/preceding-sibling::*)"/>

I guess this is not possible, can someone confirm this ?

Well a document has a single root element that can't have any sibling elements so document(...)/bar can't have sibling elements but other than that I think you want to use xsl:sequence.

--
Matthieu Ricaud
IGS-CP
Service Livre numirique