I don't know where you've been looking, but this code doesn't make sense at
all. Sorting a sequence is never going to reduce the number of items in the
sequence. (And the path expression used in xsl:sort should almost never
begin with "/", because that would typically mean that every item has the
same sort key - or in your case, no sort key at all).

First decide whether you're using XSLT 1.0 or 2.0. This kind of thing is
MUCH easier in 2.0.

In XSLT 2.0, use xsl:for-each-group.

In XSLT 1.0, use Muenchian grouping, described at
http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/grouping

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hesselberth, Jan [mailto:Jan.Hesselberth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 21 May 2008 15:00
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  Variable containing unique values
> 
> I've read the book and looked at the examples but I can't 
> manage to create a variable containing unique values for my 
> xml. All I get is a list of all values.
> I need a variable containing unique values for rolloverDate. 
> I've tried all sorts of rules for testing for current 
> rolloverDate not being equal to previous rollover dates but I 
> can't get it to work.
> Can you help please.
> Regards
> 	Jan Hesselberth
> 
> The code I have is
> 
> 	<xsl:variable name="unique-dates">
> 		<xsl:for-each
> 		select
> ="REPORT/Rollover/RolloverForecast/summaryAccount/element">
> 			<xsl:sort
> select="/rolloverDate[not(preceding::rolloverDate= current())]"/>
> 		<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
> 		</xsl:for-each>
> 	</xsl:variable>	
> 
> The xml snippet looks like
> 
> <summaryAccount id="12345"> 
> 	<isAutomatedRollover>N</isAutomatedRollover> 
> 	<element id="1"> 
> 		<rolloverDate>2008-04-04</rolloverDate> 
> 	</element> 
> 	<element id="2"> 
> 		<rolloverDate>2008-04-04</rolloverDate> 
> 	</element>
> </summaryAccount>
> <summaryAccount id="12346"> 
> 	<isAutomatedRollover>Y</isAutomatedRollover> 
> 	<element id="1"> 
> 		<rolloverDate>2008-04-22</rolloverDate> 
> 	</element>
> </summaryAccount>
> <summaryAccount id="12347"> 
> 	<isAutomatedRollover>Y</isAutomatedRollover> 
> 	<element id="1"> 
> 		<rolloverDate>2008-04-22</rolloverDate> 
> 	</element> 
> 	<element id="2"> 
> 		<rolloverDate>2008-04-17</rolloverDate> 
> 	</element>
> </summaryAccount>
> 
> 
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