RE: Generically Finding Parent Elements

You're not explaining yourself well. You've shown some source XML (good) and
have then said that the actual XML might be completely different (so why
show it?).  Then you say:

>I need to be able to pull the parent node tree into a variable so I can
then loop over them. 

Parent of what? What is a "parent node tree"? What does "them" refer to (I
can't find a plural noun)? Why do you want to loop over "them"? Why do you
imagine that pulling it/them into a variable will help? And last but not
least, what output are you trying to produce?

Perhaps (guessing wildly) you just want

<xsl:for-each select="ancestor::*">

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Dexter [mailto:timothy.dexter@xxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 05 May 2008 21:25
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  Generically Finding Parent Elements
> 
> Hi All
> 
> Im struggling with a problem. Assume I have the following XML
> 
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <ROOT>
>  <DEPTS>
>   <DEPT>
>    <DEPTNO>10</DEPTNO>
>    <DEPTNAME>Accounting</DEPTNAME>
>    <EMPLOYEES>
>     <EMPLOYEE>
>      <EMPNUM>10001</EMPNUM>
>      <EMPNAME>Jo Bloggs</EMPNAME>
>      <SALARY>100000</SALARY>
>     </EMPLOYEE>
>     <EMPLOYEE>
>      <EMPNUM>10002</EMPNUM>
>      <EMPNAME>Jo Smother</EMPNAME>
>      <SALARY>220000</SALARY>
>     </EMPLOYEE>
>     <EMPLOYEE>
>      <EMPNUM>10003</EMPNUM>
>      <EMPNAME>James Dean</EMPNAME>
>      <SALARY>1000</SALARY>
>     </EMPLOYEE>
>    </EMPLOYEES>
>   </DEPT>
>   <DEPT>
>    <DEPTNO>20</DEPTNO>
>    <DEPTNAME>Shipping</DEPTNAME>
>    <EMPLOYEES>
>     <EMPLOYEE>
>      <EMPNUM>20001</EMPNUM>
>      <EMPNAME>Dave Gibbons</EMPNAME>
>      <SALARY>100000</SALARY>
>     </EMPLOYEE>
>     <EMPLOYEE>
>      <EMPNUM>20002</EMPNUM>
>      <EMPNAME>John Fisher</EMPNAME>
>      <SALARY>220000</SALARY>
>     </EMPLOYEE>
>     <EMPLOYEE>
>      <EMPNUM>20003</EMPNUM>
>      <EMPNAME>Marti Johnson</EMPNAME>
>      <SALARY>1000</SALARY>
>     </EMPLOYEE>
>    </EMPLOYEES>
>   </DEPT>
>  </DEPTS>
> </ROOT>
> 
> This is just a sample XML the XSL template needs to handle 
> any number of levels in the XML - the only known element is 
> the ROOT name. I need to be able to pull the parent node tree 
> into a variable so I can then loop over them. The looping I 
> can handle, any help on grabbing the parent element names in 
> a tree gratefully received.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Tim