filter based on parameter, not getting it.

Hi,

I am trying to filter based on a parameter.  If the filterparam is empty, don't 
do any filtering.  If filterparam is something, that's what to filter on.

xml.xml
---------------------------------------------------------
<people>
        <person name="george">
                <cat>zoro</cat>
                <dog>butch</dog>
                <fish>jaws</fish>
        </person>
        <person name="jennifer">
                <cat>felix</cat>
                <dog>fido</dog>
                <fish>moby</fish>
        </person>
        <person name="simon">
                <cat>tom</cat>
                <dog>scooby</dog>
                <fish>conroy</fish>
        </person>
</people>
---------------------------------------------------------


This code doesn't work:
---------------------------------------------------------
<xsl:param name="filterparam"/>
<xsl:template match="/">

<xsl:choose>
        <xsl:when test="string-length($filterparam) = 0">
                <xsl:variable name="filter" select="//person"/>
        </xsl:when>
        <xsl:otherwise>
                <xsl:variable name="filter" select="//person[cat = 
$filterparam]"/>
        </xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

<table>
        <xsl:for-each select="$filter">
        <tr>
                <td><xsl:value-of select="cat"/></td>
                <td><xsl:value-of select="dog"/></td>
                <td><xsl:value-of select="fish"/></td>
        </tr>
        </xsl:for-each>
</table>
---------------------------------------------------------

here is my command line entry:
java org.apache.xalan.xslt.Process -in xml.xml -xsl filterprob.xsl -param 
filterparam zoro -out output.html

my error:
Could not find variable with the name of filter

I wanted my output to be:
zoro butch jaws

I realize that the error is caused because the variable is set up in the 
choose. if I move the variable statements outside the choose, it works...but 
then I am not checking if filterparam is empty or not.

thanks for any help you could provide.

will

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list