XSLT 1.0 models the result of any path expression as a set of nodes in no
particular order. The semantics of xsl:for-each are that it processes this
set in the order determined by its xsl:sort specification; the default for
this is "document order".
You can reverse this using <xsl:sort select="position()" order="descending"
data-type="number"/>
The way the semantics are modelled changes significantly in XSLT 2.0, though
of course backwards compatiblity has been retained.
Why is this so?
Depends who you ask. Committees move in mysterious ways. It can be hard to
work out why a decision was made even if you were present at all the
meetings - which in this case, I wasn't.
And, last question, is there a way to have a pointer
(xsl:variable) to nodes in RDO without resorting to copying
or reconstructing?
Not in 1.0: the type system only allows sets of nodes, not sequences. 2.0
changes that.
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Ludwig [mailto:mlu(_at_)as-guides(_dot_)com]
Sent: 28 February 2008 09:28
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Subject: [xsl] Reverse axis, reverse document order, xsl:for-each
I want to process nodes collected on a reverse axis in
reverse document order (RDO). Using xsl:for-each, it doesn't
work. Why is this so? Why does xsl:for-each obliterate the
direction offered by the axis? Why does it revert reversion?
What precise situation does RDO apply to? Is it only for node
test immediately attached to the axis step?
And, last question, is there a way to have a pointer
(xsl:variable) to nodes in RDO without resorting to copying
or reconstructing? (See example two in the stylesheet below.)
I'm using XSL language version 1.0 with libxslt.
mludwig(_at_)forelle:~/xpg/Werkstatt/xsl-rdo > expand -t1 rdo.xml <Urmel>
<elm>eins</elm>
<elm>zwei</elm>
<elm>drei</elm>
</Urmel>
mludwig(_at_)forelle:~/xpg/Werkstatt/xsl-rdo > expand -t1 rdo.xsl
<?xml version="1.0"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
<xsl:output method="text"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:variable name="my-node" select=".//elm[ . = 'drei' ]"/>
<!-- one -->
<xsl:for-each select="$my-node/preceding-sibling::elm">
<xsl:value-of select="concat(. , ' ')"/>
</xsl:for-each>
<!-- two, same thing using a variable -->
<xsl:variable name="prec"
select="$my-node/preceding-sibling::elm"/>
<xsl:for-each select="$prec">
<xsl:value-of select="concat(. , ' ')"/>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
mludwig(_at_)forelle:~/xpg/Werkstatt/xsl-rdo > xsltproc rdo.xsl
rdo.xml eins zwei eins zwei
The output I want and expect is the reverse:
zwei
eins
zwei
eins
Michael
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