On Feb 23, 7:51 pm, "abhishek....@gmail.com"
<abhishek....@gmail.com> wrote:
> <root>
> <node>8</node>
> <node>21</node>
> <node>-7</node>
> <node>13</node>
> <node>43</node>
> <node>2</node>
> </root>
>
> how might I select only the 2nd, 3rd and 4th nodes
<xsl:template match="node"/>
<xsl:template
match="node[position() > 1 and position() < 5]">
<xsl:copy><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
> (or more generically, any selective set of nodes like
> first 4,
<xsl:template match="node"/>
<xsl:template
match="node[count(preceding-sibling::node) < 4]">
<xsl:copy><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
> last 3,
<xsl:template match="node"/>
<xsl:template
match="node[count(following-sibling::node) < 3]">
<xsl:copy><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
> every other node
<xsl:template match="node"/>
<xsl:template
match="node[position() mod 2=0]">
<xsl:copy><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
Note that depending on what exactly you are trying to do,
it might be a good idea to use xsl:key/key() combo together
with selecting the nodesets you need instead of
template-based matching of the nodes you need processed.
> Note that since my XSLT obviously won't know the value
> inside a node
I beg your pardon? Of course it will. Use string() or just
'.'. Note that this is a bit esoteric and often not a very
good practice if you stop and think about it for a moment.
Anyway, processing based on a value of the node is
definitely possible.
> I can't just pick a node with the values of 21, -7 and 13
Of course you can.
<xsl:template match="node"/>
<xsl:template
match="node[.=21 or .=-7 or .=13]">
<xsl:copy><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
Or did you mean that your problem requires matching of
nodes based on their position in the document, not on the
plain data they contain? If that is the case, the solutions
are described above.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if you're processing
a homogeneous nodeset using node position to switch
processing modes, it is often an indicator of poor XML
design of your source document; but whatever suits you.
> using xsl:if or something like it. I tried playing around
> with some things like for-each
As a rule of the thumb, if and choose should be replaced
with predicate-based selection and matching where possible.
Where impossible, go ahead and use if or choose, but
remember that it's a good idea to feel somewhat dirty and
uncomfortable afterwards.
You should also realize that for-each is very different
from what you would expect out of similarly based language
constructs or library methods in imperative languages such
as Perl, PHP, C++ or Java. Use template-based processing
instead.
> and creating a template with some sort of a recursive
> scenario, but to no avail.
I'm not sure I can see how recursive processing would be
helpful in this particular case.
--
roy axenov
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