This is yet another problem that's easy in XSLT 2.0 but quite hard in 1.0.
In 2.0 you can calculate the sort key by calling a stylesheet function, or
by instructions inside the xsl:sort element:
<xsl:sort>
<xsl:for-each ...
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:sort>
In 1.0 it's probably simplest to calculate the sort key in a first pass,
storing it as an attribute on the temporary tree, then do the sorting in a
second pass.
Michael Kay
-----Original Message-----
From: Allin Cottrell [mailto:cottrell(_at_)wfu(_dot_)edu]
Sent: 28 July 2004 16:17
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Subject: [xsl] Yet Another Sorting Problem
I've consulted the FAQ, but I'm having difficulty
extrapolating to the
answer to this one.
In sorting a bibliography, I want to sort the elements (e.g. books,
articles) by author's name and publication date. OK, that's easy.
My problem is handling multiple authors, with the the number unknown
in advance. For flexibility in formatting the authors' names I can't
have them all in one big string; the data-structure I
actually have is
this:
* each bibliography-entry element has an "authorlist" element.
* an authorlist has one or more "author" elements, which have
attributes such as surname, fist name, initials.
The easy solution, if it were available, would be to wrap the
xsl:sort
selection code in an xsl:for-each ranging across the authors in an
entry's authorlist, but that's forbidden by xsl syntax.
Next thought: construct on the fly a "grand author string" by lumping
together the names and initials of all the authors in an entry's
authorlist, and use this as the sort key for the entries.
Seems promising, but I haven't managed to implement it. What I have
so far is broken -- I realize I can't use xsl:attribute to do this,
but I'm not sure what I should be using.
<xsl:template match="bibliography">
<xsl:for-each select="book|journalarticle|paper">
<xsl:attribute name="auhash">
<xsl:for-each select="authorlist/author">
<xsl:value-of select="@surname"/>
<xsl:value-of select="@initials"/>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:apply-templates select="book|journalarticle|paper">
<xsl:sort select="@auhash"/>
<xsl:sort select="pubdate"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
</xsl:template>
--
Allin Cottrell
Department of Economics
Wake Forest University, NC
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