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Re: [xsl] One-based indexes in XPath


Subject: Re: [xsl] One-based indexes in XPath
From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 22:20:53 +0530

A quick thought from me.

Let's say, we have to select a node as following:

following-sibling::xx[1]

To me traversal on following (or say preceding) axis will make sense
if indexes start from 1.

On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 10:44 PM, Justin Johansson <procode@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Trusting this question is relevant to the XSL List.
>
> Would someone please give me advice as to why "1-based" indexes are used in
> XPath, such as para[1] instead of para[0] for the first para item/element?
>
> Why does the spec for XPath (and its/XQuery operator/function library) go
> against the norm for modern programming languages in which zero is the base
> for array-like collections?
>
> The reason for my question is to do with reconciling XPath and XSLT with an
> implementation in Javascript in which zero is the base index for arrays.
> My users may well be perplexed by having to decide whether an index number
> is in XPath/XSLT-world or Javascript-world.
>
> Thanks for comments,
>
> Justin Johansson


-- 
Regards,
Mukul Gandhi


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