Re: Weird XPath evaluation differences between Saxon and Xalan

In XPath 2.0, the value-of instruction returns the text value of each item 
in a sequence that contains all the nodes that satisfy the path 
expression. In your case, that's the text values of all three <name> 
nodes.

In XPath 1.0, the value-of instruction returns the text value of the first 
node that satisfies the path expression.

So, Saxon is doing the right thing.

For the relevant part of the 2.0 specification, see 
http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#constructing-simple-content

As for what you should do, that depends on whether you are going to use a 
1.0-compliant processor or a 2.0-compliant processor. Since you say that 
you want the sequence of all three nodes, you could, in 1.0, use:

<xsl:for-each select="SOMETHING/NAME">
  <xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:for-each>

or, in 2.0, use:

<xsl:value-of select="SOMETHING/NAME"/>

The neat thing (to me) about the 2.0 version of value-of is the separator 
attribute. With it, you can do things like this:

Given the following XML structure:

<path>
  <directory>dir1</directory>
  <directory>dir2</directory>
  <file>file.ext</file>
</path>

I can get a path expression with:

<xsl:template match="path">
  <xsl:value-of select="directory|file" separator="/"/>
</xsl:template>

and get dir1/dir2/file.ext as a result.

(I just tested that in Saxon 8.4 to be sure.)

That's a trivial example, but the basic idea has all sorts of useful 
applications.

HTH

Jay Bryant
Bryant Communication Services
(presently consulting at Synergistic Solution Technologies)





Simon OUALID <symon(_at_)tatouage(_dot_)fr> 
06/08/2005 04:46 PM
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Subject
[xsl] Weird XPath evaluation differences between Saxon and Xalan






Hi,

I have a question regarding a XPath evaluation difference between Saxon 
and Xalan (using the latest release of both tools), with the same XML 
datas and the XPath query !

Considering this XML tree :

<GROUP>
  <SOMETHING>
    <NAME>AA</NAME>
  </SOMETHING>
  <SOMETHING>
    <NAME>BB</NAME>
  </SOMETHING>
  <SOMETHING>
    <NAME>CC</NAME>
  </SOMETHING>
</GROUP>

and the following XPath query :

<xsl:value-of select="./SOMETHING/NAME"/>
in the context of a <xsl:apply-templates select="/GROUP"/>

Xalan will output "AA" but Saxon output "AABBCC" !

Stranger is than changing the version of the stylesheet modify the 
comportment of Saxon : using a 1.0 stylesheet, Saxon will output "AA" 
(as Xalan do !), but using à 2.0 stylesheet, Saxon output "AABBCC".

What's the standard says about that ? I'd like to follow W3C prescription 
!

Should I change my XPath query with GROUP like :

<xsl:value-of select="./SOMETHING//NAME"/>

or maybe :

<xsl:value-of select="./SOMETHING[*]/NAME"/>

Thanks forward for any information on this subject. For information, the 
result I expect is "AABBCC".

Symon


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