Thanks to Jeni Tennison, Michael Kay, Dimitre
Novatchev and all others who helped me understand XSL
better wrt to a solution to this problem. I have
ordered Michael Kay's and Jeni Tennison's book to get
me up to speed with XSLT.

Imrran
 
--- Jeni Tennison <jeni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Dimitre wrote:
> > "Imrran Wahid" <devguy2003@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
> message
> >
>
news:20030209234334.51979.qmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> Pardon me for asking what may be a simple
> question,
> >> but I am not very well versed in xsl. How do I
> >> translate the count to number of spaces(?)?
> >
> > The simplest (to understand) way is to have an
> xsl:variable
> > containing a sufficiently long string of spaces.
> Then take the exact
> > number of spaces using the substring() function.
> >
> > Another way (when one doesn't know the maximum
> possible number of
> > spaces that will be needed) is to use a recursive
> named template --
> > e.g. one from exslt, or this one:
> >
> >
>
http://sources.redhat.com/ml/xsl-list/2001-07/msg01040.html
> >
> > Or use the "iter" template from the FXSL library.
> >
> > The last solution is the most generic and can be
> used to implement
> > any iteration of the type "Do something N times".
> 
> Just to add to Dimitre's suggestion: since Imrran is
> counting
> ancestors to work out how many non-breaking spaces
> to add, it would be
> a good idea to use one of the above methods to
> create an $indent
> number of spaces (e.g. in an $indent-spaces global
> variable), and then
> use xsl:for-each to iterate over the ancestors to
> multiply that number
> of non-breaking spaces:
> 
>   <xsl:for-each select="ancestor::*">
>     <xsl:value-of select="$indent-spaces" />
>   </xsl:for-each>
> 
> Another method that I use when formatting a tree is
> to pass down the
> previous indent as a parameter from parent to child,
> adding an indent
> on each step. Something like:
> 
> <xsl:template match="*">
>   <xsl:param name="indent" />
>   ...
>   <xsl:apply-templates>
>     <xsl:with-param name="indent"
>                     select="concat($indent,
> $indent-spaces)" />
>   </xsl:apply-templates>
>   ...
> </xsl:template>
> 
> Again, the $indent-spaces that you add to the indent
> at each level may
> need to be constructed dynamically from a number
> using one of
> Dimitre's suggestions above.
>   
> Cheers,
> 
> Jeni
> 
> ---
> Jeni Tennison
> http://www.jenitennison.com/
> 
> 
>  XSL-List info and archive: 
> http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
> 


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