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Re: [xsl] FW: Two-Column XSL question
Subject: Re: [xsl] FW: Two-Column XSL question
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:22:13 -0500
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Josh,
At 10:09 AM 1/31/2008, you wrote:
It worked for me, but I need some help understanding what these
items are actually doing:
1- <xsl:variable name="others" select="following-sibling::option[position()
< 2]" />
This is selecting all the 'option' elements on the
following-sibling:: axis whose position on that axis is less than 2,
and binding them to the 'others' variable.
It could be written more concisely as "following-sibling::option[1]";
the reason you're seeing the "less than 2" logic here is probably
that the significance of 2 here is that it's the number of columns:
for three columns, $others should include both the following sibling
and the next following sibling, i.e.
"following-sibling::option[position() < 3]". In other words, this
bit of code was originally written to be more general than your case.
2- <xsl:for-each select=".|$others">
This is selecting the current node "." along with the nodes bound to
$others (in your case, its following-sibling 'option' element) for
processing), using the union operator "|". So its saying "for me and
the node that belong in the same row in the other column" (since for
you, $others is at most a single node).
3- <xsl:if test="not($others)">
This is fallback logic, for the case where you've run out of nodes
and $others is empty. (A node set cast to a Boolean returns false if
the set is empty, so not($others) is true when no nodes are bound to $others.
I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.
Cheers,
Wendell
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Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
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