Re: can a value of a parameter depends on a other valu

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Roelof Wobben <rwobben@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> One question. If I have two variables which depends on the same condition but will have other values do I have to write three seperate variable blocks ?

In a functional language, like XSLT, which disallows side-effects like
changing the value of a variable as execution proceeds, you can't use
a familiar pattern like "if (a = b) then set c = 1, d = 2, e = 3".
One pattern for accomplishing this is to set a temporary variable to a
composite value, then split it up.

This is easier and cleaner in XSLT 2.0, with support for sequences,
better string functions, etc.  However, it is still doable in XSLT 1.0
for reasonably simple cases.  I often find a little bit of ugliness
like this is worth the increase in maintainability gained by not
repeating the logic of the conditions.

<xsl:param name="page"/>

<xsl:variable name="labels">
    <xsl:choose>
        <xsl:when test="$page = 4">4,D;iv</xsl:when>
        <xsl:when test="$page = 3">3,C;iii</xsl:when>
        <xsl:when test="$page = 2">2,B;ii</xsl:when>
        <xsl:otherwise>1,A;i</xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="arabic" select="substring-before($labels, ',')"/>
<xsl:variable name="alpha"
select="substring-before(substring-after($labels, ','), ';')"/>
<xsl:variable name="roman" select="substring-after($labels, ';')"/>

-Brandon :)