[xsl] Table breaks AND multi-level sorting (and confusion)

[Rob Wygand <rob at wygand dot com>]

Hi,

I aplogize if this is covered in the FAQ, but I've been reading it for 
hours and have not yet been able to successfully apply what's there to 
my problem.

Given the following XML:

<response>
   <item type="a" name="abc"/>
   <item type="b" name="yyy"/>
   <item type="a" name="xyz"/>
   <item type="a" name="cde"/>
   <item type="b" name="aaa"/>
   ...
</response>

I need to generate to generate a table in HTML that is 5 columns wide, 
sorted fiorst by type and second by name such as this:

<table>
   <tr>
     <td>abc</td>
     <td>cde</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td>xyz</td>
     <td>aaa</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td>yyy</td>
     <td></td>
   </tr>
   ...
</table>

I have deduced that

<xsl:for-each select="item]position() mod 5 = 1]">
   <xsl:sort select="@name"/>
</xsl:for-each>

will get me every 5th sorted item, but when I try and get it's 
following-siblings, thing go all wacky as those are returned in document 
order.

The XSL I current have is as follows:

<xsl:template match="response">
   <table border="1" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="1">

   <xsl:for-each select="item[position() mod 5 = 1]">
     <xsl:sort select="@type"
               data-type="text"
               order="ascending"
               case-order="upper-first"/>

     <xsl:sort select="@name"
               data-type="text"
               order="ascending"
               case-order="upper-first"/>
     <tr>
       <xsl:apply-templates select=".|following-sibling::item[position() 
&lt; 5]">
             <!-- hoping resorting worked, but it does not -->
             <xsl:sort select="@type"
                       data-type="text"
                       order="ascending"
                       case-order="upper-first"/>
             <xsl:sort select="@name"
                       data-type="text"
                       order="ascending"
                       case-order="upper-first"/>
           </xsl:apply-templates>
         </tr>
       </xsl:for-each>
     </table>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="item">
     <td align="center">

       <xsl:choose>

         <xsl:when test="@type='a'">
         ...
         </xsl:when>

         <xsl:when test="@type='b'">
         ...
         </xsl:when>
       </xsl:choose>

     </td>
   </xsl:template>

Any pointers would be most appreciated..

Many thanks in advance!
rjw


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