The test is the same in both cases. The third item in .//* is the <rdg
n="3"> element. The two elements before this are the <q n="1"> element and
the <app n="2"> element, and you have obtained deep copies of these two
elements, just as you requested.
However, this isn't going to help with your problem. Doing xsl:copy-of gives
you a deep copy of all the selected nodes, and therefore xsl:copy-of
select=".//*" is going to contain many duplicated nodes: each element will
be copied once its own right, and once as a side-effect of copying its
parent, once when copying its grandparent, and so on.
This kind of problem becomes much easier with the << and >> operators in
XPath 2.0. Select the first and last nodes you want to process (say A and
B), and then you can process all the required nodes using
select="$A | //*[. >> $A and . << $B] | $B"
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Van den Branden
[mailto:ron(_dot_)vandenbranden(_at_)kantl(_dot_)be]
Sent: 19 November 2004 13:07
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Subject: [xsl] position() test for processing boundaries
Hi all,
This is the first time I write to this list, since I have carefully
tried to check the archives for an answer to my question. I am
struggling with finding ways to delimit processing of descendant nodes
based on start and end positions.
A previous posting
(http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/200009/msg00181.html)
comes close, but leaves me confused about one aspect.
Basically, it has
to do with a (seemingly?) difference in the way [position() > ...]
and [position() < ...] predicates are evaluated.
Given this example document fragment:
<p>
<q n="1>
<app n="2">
<rdg n="3">rdg1</rdg>
<rdg n="4">rdg2</rdg>
<rdg n="5">rdg3</rdg>
</app>
[text]
<anchor n="6"/>
<app n="7">
<rdg n="8">rdg1</rdg>
<rdg n="9">rdg2</rdg>
<rdg n="10">rdg3</rdg>
</app>
</q>
[text]
<app n="11">
<rdg n="12">rdg1</rdg>
<rdg n="13">rdg2</rdg>
</app>
<anchor n="14"/>
<q n="15">
<app n="16">
<rdg n="17">rdg1</rdg>
<rdg n="18">rdg2</rdg>
<rdg n="19">rdg3</rdg>
</app>
[text]
<anchor n="20"/>
text
<app n="21" TEIform="app">
<rdg n="22">rdg1</rdg>
<rdg n="23">rdg2</rdg>
</app>
[text]
</q>
</p>
I am trying to find ways for delimiting the processing of
descendants of
<p>, so that all and only those elements between a certain start
position and a certain end position are processed. Experimenting with
ways to express such constraints, I managed to identify a
basic problem
(in my understanding, probably). I found following differences:
(A)
Given following example XSLT fragment triggering processing from START
position 3:
<xsl:template match="p">
<xsl:copy-of select="(.//*)[position() > 3]"/>
</xsl:template>
This one correctly (or, at least, expectedly) copies all descendant
nodes of <p>, starting from <rdg n="4"> up to the end.
(B)
However, when I use that same position as END position in following
fragment:
<xsl:template match="p">
<xsl:copy-of select="(.//*)[position() < 3]"/>
</xsl:template>
All direct children of <p> are returned that occur before the
3rd direct
child:
<q n="1">
<app n="2">
<rdg n="3">rdg1</rdg>
<rdg n="4">rdg2</rdg>
<rdg n="5">rdg3</rdg>
</app>
[text]
<anchor n="6"/>
<app n="7">
<rdg n="8">rdg1</rdg>
<rdg n="9">rdg2</rdg>
<rdg n="10">rdg3</rdg>
</app>
</q>
<app n="2">
<rdg n="3">rdg1</rdg>
<rdg n="4">rdg2</rdg>
<rdg n="5">rdg3</rdg>
</app>
This seems to suggest that the position test in case (A) is applied at
the level of the deepest descendant, while in case (B) at the level of
the first generation of descendants.
Could anyone explain what makes the difference? Any
suggestions for the
right way to delimit processing of descendant nodes up to a certain
position (in this example only the nodes appearing before
<rdg n="3">)?
Many thanks in advance!
Ron
--
Ron Van den Branden
Wetenschappelijk attaché
Centrum voor Teksteditie en Bronnenstudie (CTB)
Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde (KANTL)
Koningstraat 18 / b-9000 Gent / Belgium
e-mail : ron(_dot_)vandenbranden(_at_)kantl(_dot_)be
http://www.kantl.be/ctb/staff/ron.htm
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