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Re: [xsl] for vs. for-each

2021-03-14 14:48:39
On Sun, Mar 14, 2021 at 11:55 AM Michael Kay mike(_at_)saxonica(_dot_)com <
xsl-list-service(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com> wrote:

 For 4.0, however, I would like to see better ways of accessing items in a
sequence by position, and there has been much discussion about how best to
achiieve this.


Yes, we already do have the index-of() function, but we need a reverse to
this:

from-indexes($vSeq, $vIndexes)

and this would produce a sequence with items each of which is the item of
$vSeq at position the value of the $index-value in $vIndexes, when
$index-value iterates over $vIndexes, ot more strictly:

     for $ind in $vIndexes
       return $vSeq[$ind]

Why reverse of index-of() ?

Because, for any $x in $vSeq it is true that

     from-indexes($vSeq, index-of($vSeq, $x))

is a sequence containing all $x items from $vSeq.

Or:

     $x eq distinct-values( from-indexes($vSeq, index-of($vSeq, $x)) )

Or if we had sets in XPath, then:

     set {$x} === set { from-indexes($vSeq, index-of($vSeq, $x)) }

And this can also be written as:

     set {$x}  ===  set { $vSeq => from-indexes( $vSeq => index-of($x)) }


There is even this proposal for an operator notation for the from-indexes()
function, but individual preferences at present seem to vary too much in
order to choose such an operator:

https://github.com/qt4cg/qtspecs/issues/50


Thanks,
Dimitre







Michael Kay
Saxonica

On 14 Mar 2021, at 18:04, Michael Müller-Hillebrand 
mmh(_at_)docufy(_dot_)de <
xsl-list-service(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com> wrote:

Folks,

Given a variable with a sequence of values

<xsl:variable name="values" select="(1,2,3,4,5)" as="xs:double+"/>

these are three methods to report its content

<xsl:sequence select="for $i in 1 to count($values) return $values[$i]"/>

<xsl:for-each select="1 to count($values)">
   <xsl:sequence select="$values[.]"/>
</xsl:for-each>

<xsl:for-each select="1 to count($values)">
   <xsl:sequence select="$values[current()]"/>
</xsl:for-each>

The first works as expected, the second does not, but the third
astonishingly enough gives me the same result as the first. Check it out:

https://xsltfiddle.liberty-development.net/ei5R4v8/2

I read/understand that there is a difference between a for expression
and a path expression, but since we can use atomized values in
xsl:for-each, I would like to see more similarity between for and for-each.

Should this be on the wishlist for XSLT 4 or do I have to
learn/understand some more concepts?

Puzzled greeting,

- Michael





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