Bite the bullet and use recursion. Something like this:
<xsl:template match="p">
<p>
<xsl:apply-templates select="child::node()[1]" mode="first"/>
</p>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="text()[contains(., '.')]" mode="first">
<xsl:value-of select="substring-before(., '.')"/>
<xsl:text>.</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*[contains(., '.')]" mode="first">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="child::node()[1]" mode="first"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="node()" mode="first">
<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::node()[1]"
mode="first"/>
</xsl:template>
Michael Kay
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
[mailto:owner-xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com] On Behalf Of
Larry Kollar
Sent: 28 October 2003 04:14
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Subject: [xsl] Selecting the first sentence of a paragraph
Subject says it mostly, but I want to include any elements as well as
text nodes making up that first sentence.
Hm, maybe I'd better show a sample XML fragment:
<section>
<label>show exception</label>
<p>Syntax: <cmd>show exception <arg>n</arg></cmd></p>
<p>Identical to <keyword>systat</keyword>.
The optional argument <arg>n</arg> specifies the level of
detail.</p>
<other>stuff we don't care about</other>
</section>
The part I have working pretty well applies the identity
transform to the first paragraph if it starts with "Syntax."
I also want to copy the first sentence of the next paragraph
(or the first sentence of the first paragraph if there's no
"Syntax" definition). The following template gets the first
sentence but removes the internal markup:
<xsl:template match="p" mode="firstsentence">
<p><xsl:copy-of
select='concat(substring-before(.,"."), ".")' /></p>
</xsl:template>
Producing "Identical to systat." That I expect, and set it up
as a placeholder until I could get what I really wanted.
That's been somewhat knottier.
I assume I'll have to use xsl:for-each to select all the
nodes up to the first period in the paragraph, apply the
identity transform to them, then select the node containing
the period and use the
concat(substring-before(.,"."),".") function to get that part.
I've tried a couple of variations on
xsl:for-each select='./*/preceding-sibling::*[contains(text(),".")]'
which is probably causing hysterical laughter and/or retching
among some of you.... I'm probably making this harder than it
has to be.
Any suggestions are much appreciated. I'm using xsltproc if
that makes a difference.
--
Larry Kollar k o l l a r @ a l l t e l . n e t
"The hardest part of all this is the part that requires thinking."
-- Paul Tyson, on xml-doc
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
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