Ken,

Thanks a bunch for the help.  I really appreciate it.

Regards,
Dave

--- "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> At 2004-10-06 15:13 -0700, David P. Nesbitt wrote:
> >I am getting some unexpect results from an XPath
> >predicate.
> 
> Yours is a common mistake made by my students who
> have looked at XPath 
> before taking a class.
> 
> >I am trying to load the unique values of
> >an element into a variable.  The XML file is
> grouped
> >by this element.  I want to treat the absence of
> the
> >element as a value as well (the "null" value if you
> >will).  However, I can't get the XPath predicate to
> >filter out multiple "null" values.
> 
> You are forgetting that "preceding-sibling::" looks
> at *all* preceding 
> siblings, not just the closest preceding sibling.
> 
> >I am including below a data file, stylesheet,
> expected
> >output and observed output.
> 
> Thank you, that made it easy to modify to illustrate
> the fix.
> 
> >If you can see anything
> >wrong, I would most appreciate your assistance.
> 
> Use a predicate "[1]" to talk about the immediately
> preceding sibling, not 
> *all* preceding siblings.
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> .................... Ken
> 
> p.s. your use of boolean() on a node set is
> redundant ... the processor is 
> already converting both operands to boolean when the
> operator is boolean.
> 
> T:\ftemp>type nesbitt.xml
> <a>
>   <b>
>    <c>123</c>
>    <d>000</d>
>   </b>
>   <b>
>    <c>123</c>
>    <d>000</d>
>   </b>
>   <b>
>    <d>000</d>
>   </b>
>   <b>
>    <d>000</d>
>   </b>
>   <b>
>    <c>456</c>
>    <d>000</d>
>   </b>
>   <b>
>    <c>456</c>
>    <d>000</d>
>   </b>
>   <b>
>    <c>789</c>
>    <d>000</d>
>   </b>
> </a>
> 
> T:\ftemp>type nesbitt.xsl
> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
> xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
> xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
> <xsl:output method="text"/>
>   <xsl:template match="a">
>     <xsl:variable name="unique-cs"
> select="/a/b[(not(preceding-sibling::b) or
>               (not(c) and preceding-sibling::b[1]/c)
> or
>               (c and
> not(c=preceding-sibling::b[1]/c)))]"/>
>     <xsl:for-each select="$unique-cs">
>      <xsl:value-of select="c"/>
>      <xsl:text>
>   </xsl:text>
>     </xsl:for-each>
>   </xsl:template>
> </xsl:stylesheet>
> 
> T:\ftemp>saxon nesbitt.xml nesbitt.xsl
> 123
> 
>   456
>   789
> 
> T:\ftemp>
> 
> --
> Upcoming publicly-subscribed XSL delivery: Helsinki
> Oct 18-20,2004
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> XML/XSL training.
> G. Ken Holman                
> mailto:gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Crane Softwrights Ltd.         
> http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/s/
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> 
> 



		
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