//item[label = 'subTitle']/preceding-sibling::item[1]
Your expression
//preceding::item[label = 'subTitle']
means
/descendant-or-self::node()/preceding::item[label = 'subTitle']
which finds all the nodes in the document, then for each one searches
backwards to find preceding items with label='subtitle', and then eliminates
the duplicates.
Note also the distinction between preceding-sibling and preceding.
In your case the [1] is unnecessary because there is only one preceding
sibling item, but I guess your real problem is a bit more complex.
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Duane Gran [mailto:duane(_dot_)gran(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com]
Sent: 03 January 2006 18:35
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Subject: [xsl] trouble with preceding axis
I'm having some trouble using the preceding axis in XPath and would
be much obliged if someone could steer me in the right direction. I
have the following document:
<root>
<item order="3">
<label>Title</label>
</item>
<item order="4">
<label>subTitle</label>
</item>
</root>
I have the following XPath to select the second item, based on the
value of its label child:
//item[label = 'subTitle']
Now I want to modify this so that I refer to the preceding item
element, the first one in the list. I tried the following without
success (it returns the second item element):
//preceding::item[label = 'subTitle']
Suggestions are most welcome on this.
Duane
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