RE: [xml-dev] Data into 3 even columns

["Nathan Young -X \(natyoung - Artizen at Cisco\)" <natyoung@cisco.com>]

Hi.

When you say "Ideally it wouldn't break the makes up" what does that
mean?  I had to code a template where it would break a listing on
headers when the headers were within 5 list items of the midpoint, but
if the header was further than that from the midpoint then it would
break at the midpoint and add a continuation header to the top of the
second column.

I actually ended up doing the logic to find the break point in several
steps before starting the output run, then spitting out the column break
using d-o-e when I encountered the break point, although I know that
idea will make XSL idealists shudder.

I think in order to give a good answer one would need to know more about
your column breaking rules.

------------>Nathan

> I have an XML file with make and model car data (example at 
> the end). It has an unknown number of makes and an unknown 
> number of models per make. I want to use an XSLT doc to 
> format it into 3 even columns. Ideally it wouldn't break the 
> makes up but it counts both makes and models in the total 
> count. See the desired output below. 
> 
> I am new to XML and have gotten the output to work except 
> this part. I can get the count but I don't know how to break 
> the data up evenly. Any ideas? Is it possible?
> 
> <data>
> 
> <make name="ford">
> 
> <model>mustang</model>
> 
> </make>
> <make name="honda">
> 
> <model>civic</model>
> <model>accord</model>
> 
> </make>
> 
> <make name="toyota">
> 
> <model>corolla</model>
> <model>rav4</model>
> <model>tundra</model>
> 
> </make>
> <make name="hummer">
> 
> <model>h1</model>
> <model>h2</model>
> 
> </make>
> </data>
> 
> ----------> to ----------->
> 
> <div style="float: left">
> <ul>
> <li class="make">ford</li>
> <li class="model">mustang</li> 
> <li class="make">honda</li>
> <li class="model">civic</li>
> <li class="model">accord</li>
> </ul>
> </div>
> <div style="float: left"> 
> <ul>
> <li class="make">toyota</li>
> <li class="model">corolla</li>
> <li class="model">rav4</li>
> <li class="model">tundra</li>
> </ul>
> </div>
> <div style="float: left">
> <ul>
> <li class="make">hummer</li>
> <li class="model">h1</li>
> <li class="model">h2</li>
> </ul>
> </div>
> 
> -- 
> ____________________________
> jessem@cs.ucsb.edu
> B.S. Computer Science
> University of California Santa Barbara 
>