On Thu, 20 Mar 2003, Jeni Tennison wrote:
Hi Robert,
First oddity -- i had always understood that "self::node()" could be
abbreviated as just ".". but if i replace the select expression with
".[displacement]", i get the error
A predicate is only allowed in a Step, not with an AbbreviatedStep.
"." is not textually replaced by "self::node()".
ah, sure enough, once i looked up "AbbreviatedStep" in Kay, i find,
"Note that neither . nor .. can be followed by a predicate:".
argh. so many details, so little time.
I want the "car" template to return its string value only if it's
the third in context position. (again, a weird thing to do but humor
me.) shouldn't i be able to write:
<xsl:template match="car">
<xsl:value-of select="self::node()[position() = 3]"/> # just pos 3
</xsl:template>
No. Within the predicate, the position() function returns the position
of the context node (the node that you're testing with the predicate)
amongst the nodes that you've selected in the step. You've only
selected one node with the step, the <car> element itself. The
position of the <car> element that you're testing with the predicate
is always 1 because you only select one of them.
and once i think about it, that makes perfect sense, too.
To test the position of the <car> element amongst the <car> elements
that are having templates applied to them, use the position() function
outside the predicate, where the current node list is made up of those
<car> elements. Use:
<xsl:template match="car">
<xsl:if test="position() = 3">
<xsl:value-of select="." />
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
i'd actually verified that the above worked before trying
to work the position into the predicate.
how the heck do you people remember all this stuff?
rday
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