Re: How to do macro substitution in XPath?

Hi Folks,

I am converting prose like this:

If the title = "Path to Power" and the author = "Robert A. Caro" (Lyndon

process LBJ as follows
     action 1
If the title = "Power Broker" and the author = "Robert A. Caro" (Robert

process RM as follows
     action 2
Neither LBJ nor RM
     action 3

I need the XPath to be as like the prose as possible.

Suppose the XPath will operate on XML documents like this:

<Book>
   <Title>Path to Power</Title>
   <Author>Robert A. Caro</Author>
</Book>

Below is one approach to writing the XPath. See the XPath in the

The advantage of that approach is the XPath looks like the prose.

The disadvantage with that approach is that ENTITIES are not XPath. I need

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet[
     <!ENTITY LBJ "((/Book/Title eq 'Path to Power') and (/Book/Author eq

<!ENTITY RM "((/Book/Title eq 'Power Broker') and (/Book/Author eq

]>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"

     <xsl:template match="/">
         <xsl:value-of select="
             if &LBJ; then
                 'action 1'
             else if &RM; then
                 'action 2'
             else if (not((&LBJ;) or (&RM;))) then
                 'action 3'
             else
                 'Error'
             "/>
     </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="3.0"
B B B  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
B B B  exclude-result-prefixes="#all">

B B B  <xsl:param name="LBJ" as="xs:string" static="yes"
select="'((/Book/Title eq ''Path to Power'') and (/Book/Author eq
''Robert A. Caro''))'"/>
B B B  <xsl:param name="RM" as="xs:string" static="yes"
select="'((/Book/Title eq ''Power Broker'') and (/Book/Author eq
''Robert A. Caro''))'"/>

B B B  <xsl:template match="/">
B B B B B B B  <xsl:value-of _select="
B B B B B B B B B B B  if {$LBJ} then
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B  'action 1'
B B B B B B B B B B B  else if {$RM} then
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B  'action 2'
B B B B B B B B B B B  else if (not(({$LBJ}) or ({$RM}))) then
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B  'action 3'
B B B B B B B B B B B  else
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B  'Error'
B B B B B B B B B B B  "/>
B B B  </xsl:template>

Whether that is helpful or readable/maintainable in the end, I am not
sure, but you asked for a way without entities, so I am trying to show one.