xml-dev - RE: Big Conditional XSL queries...

[Kay Michael <Michael.Kay@icl.com>]

>My problem is that if I'm given a few different parameters, how can I
easily
>and efficiently build an XSL search pattern that accounts for various
>positioning within the XML structure?

XSLT doesn't allow XPath queries to be constructed dynamically, so this is a
bit difficult. (Saxon has an extension to do this called saxon:evaluate()).

One thing you could use is a sequence of filter steps:

<xsl:variable name="v1" select="//client"/>
<xsl:variable name="v2"
   select="$v1[not($name)] | $v1[$name and $name=@name]"/>
<xsl:variable name="v3"
   select="$v2[not($version)] | $v1[$version and $version=@name]"/>

The union expression here really acts as a conditional expression: if
$version is null, it selects the first operand, otherwise it selects the
second.

>but can I use a series of $and$ directives

Only just spotted that. The reference to $and$ suggests you are not using
XSL, but the-language-that-Microsoft-refer-to-as-XSL. So ignore everything I
wrote until now, it's a different language.

Mike Kay

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