xsl:for-each changes the context node, in this case to a node in the result
tree fragment. Path expressions starting with "/" always select nodes within
the tree containing the context node. If you want to select nodes in the
original source tree, create a global variable:

<xsl:variable name="root" select="/"/>

and then select relative to that, e.g. $root/root/foo/bar 

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alexander Macdonald [mailto:lists@xxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 16 October 2004 23:54
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  node-set() confusion
> 
> I originally posted this question in the xalan-j-users mailinglist 
> thinking it was a bug in Xalan but after getting the same result with 
> the saxon xslt processor I'm not too sure...
> 
> I'm having problems when using the exslt:node-set() function as well. 
> I'm not sure if it's related or if I've just missed something 
> basic but 
> I'll explain it anyway:
> 
> *** here is my xml document:
> 
> <root>
>      <foo>
>          <bar id="1"/>
>          <bar id="2"/>
>          <bar id="3"/>
>      </foo>
> </root>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *** and here is my xslt script:
> 
> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
>      xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
>      xmlns:exslt="http://exslt.org/common">
> 
>      <xsl:output method="html"/>
> 
>      <xsl:template match="/">
>          <xsl:message>correct: <xsl:for-each 
> select="/root/foo/bar">found! </xsl:for-each></xsl:message>
> 
>          <xsl:variable name="result-tree-fragment">
>              <xsl:for-each select="/root/foo/bar">
>                      <bar id="{@id}"/>
>              </xsl:for-each>
>          </xsl:variable>
> 
>          <xsl:for-each select="/root/foo">
>                  <xsl:message>still correct: <xsl:for-each 
> select="/root/foo/bar">found! </xsl:for-each></xsl:message>
>          </xsl:for-each>
> 
>          <xsl:for-each 
> select="exslt:node-set($result-tree-fragment)/bar">
>                  <xsl:message>broken: <xsl:for-each 
> select="/root/foo/bar">found!</xsl:for-each></xsl:message>
>          </xsl:for-each>
>      </xsl:template>
> 
> </xsl:stylesheet>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> when parsed by xalan the output looks like this:
> 
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #10; Column #-1; correct: found! 
> found! found!
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #19; Column #-1; still correct: 
> found! found! 
> found!
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #23; Column #-1; broken:
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #23; Column #-1; broken:
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #23; Column #-1; broken:
> 
> 
> I expected it to look like this:
> 
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #10; Column #-1; correct: found! 
> found! found!
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #19; Column #-1; still correct: 
> found! found! 
> found!
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #23; Column #-1; broken: found! 
> found! found!
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #23; Column #-1; broken: found! 
> found! found!
> file:/home/test.xsl; Line #23; Column #-1; broken: found! 
> found! found!
> 
> 
> can anybody help?