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Re: [xsl] Universally quantified test of child attribute presence/absence

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Abel,

you wrote:

The expression:

empty(*/@my_attribute)

will return true() when there is no child that has an attribute @my_attribute (i.e., in other words, it will return true when the expression returns an empty sequence).

OK, so I could (as well) use this expression for the "negative case", or stick with the easiest understandable variant, like David suggested:

not(every $child in * satisfies $child[@my_attribute])

The expression:

every $child in * satisfies $child/@my_attribute

may not return the expected answer when there are no childs at all: it will return true. [...]

Thank you very much for this hint - I actually need a test that returns true if all children carry the attribute AND if there are element children at all - maybe David's suggestion might help? (See below.)


David,

you wrote:

> Personally I'd have probably written the "positive test" in negative
> form, rather than saying every chiuld has teh attribute, say no child
> doesn't have the attribute
> not(*[not(@my_attribute)])

Not bad either. Could I even use this expression to return false when there are no element children at all? Or would I have to make this an additional condition?

> which is also valid xpath 1 of course.
> This would make your "negative" test
> exists(*[not(@my_attribute)]

Nice and neat.

> the tests you show test that all the elements have or dont have the
> attribute, but only test for one or the other, they don't test for the
> mixed case.
> The most direct test for the mixed test is just to test
> test="*[@my_attribute] and *[not(@my_attribute)]"

Like I (partially) wrote, I prefer to leave the condition equalling this third case implied in my xsl:otherwise clause, while explicitly testing for the other two cases using xsl:when.

I am grateful to both of you for your precise explanations.

Yves


P.S.: It seems that in XSLT just as well as in life, being negative often is much easier than being positive. :-)

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