Saxon allows you to define a collation based on your own Java comparator
class.

However, a better solution I think would be to write a function that
normalizes the value into something that collates naturally: in 2.0 you can
then invoke this function to calculate the sort key.

xsl:sort select="my:mangler(ip-address)"

xsl:function name="my:mangler"
xsl:param...
xsl:for-each select="tokenize(...)"
  xsl:value-of select="format-number(...)"


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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Craig W [mailto:codecraig@xxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 02 March 2005 12:51
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  Sorting network addresses
> 
> Hi,
>  Is there a way to extend the sort function provided by XSLT? I am
> using XALAN. Basically, the elements that I need to sort need a more
> specific sort than just text or number.
> 
> well the default sorts are on number or text. But say I want to sort
> on network addresses, such as 1.2.3.4 ....text and number dont work
> here, I need my own sorting (like i would do with a Comparator in
> java)..
> 
> so if i had
> 
> 1.2.3.4
> 170.1.3.3
> 2.4.3.2
> 
> I would want the sort to be like
> 1.2.3.4
> 2.4.3.2
> 170.1.3.3
> 
> ...however (number sort wont work) and text sort does
> 1.2.3.4
> 170.1.3.3
> 2.4.3.2
> 
> see what i mean?
> 
> A sample XML may be like
> ...
> <networks>
>      <network>
>              <address>1.2.3.4</address>
>      </network>
>      <network>
>              <address>170.1.3.3</address>
>      </network>
>      <network>
>              <address>2.4.3.2</address>
>      </network>
> </networks>
> 
> ....after sort i would like...
> 
> <networks>
>      <network>
>              <address>1.2.3.4</address>
>      </network>
>      <network>
>              <address>2.4.3.2</address>
>      </network>
>      <network>
>              <address>170.1.3.3</address>
>      </network>
> </networks>
> 
> 
> Someone suggested a key, but I am not sure how that works or how to
> make it sort on a network address.  Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks,
> Craig