Re: Matching braches without a certain node

[Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev at yahoo dot com>]

Hi Ted,


>   <xsl:for-each select="//middle">
>     <xsl:if test="not (foo[node()]">
>       [Whatever I want to do]
>     </xsl:if>
>   </xsl:for-each>


The expression not (foo[node()] has unbalanced brackets and will
generate an error from the XSLT processor.

More importantly, after you add the missing closing ')', this will not
eliminate all "nodes that _don't_ have the 'foo' node" .

It will return a node-set of all child elements that do not have a
'foo' child with a node child.

So, in case you add another 'middle' element (id=4) at the end of your
xml document, like the following:

<top>
  <middle id="1">
      <data>value</data>
      <foo>bar</foo>
  </middle>
  <middle id="2">
      <data>value</data>
  </middle>
  <middle id="3">
      <data>value</data>
      <foo>bar</foo>
  </middle>
  <middle id="4">
      <data>value</data>
      <foo/>
  </middle>
</top>


Then the expression //middle[not (foo[node()])]

returns a nodeset of two elements:

  <middle id="2">
      <data>value</data>
  </middle>

and  


  <middle id="4">
      <data>value</data>
      <foo/>
  </middle>

As you can see, the second node in the returned node-set still has a
'foo' child.

The expression that will return all 'middle' elements that do not have
a 'foo' child is:

//middle[not(foo)]


Dimitre Novatchev.



Theodore Weatherly wrote:

Suppose we have this XML:

<top>
  <middle id="1">
      <data>value</data>
      <foo>bar</foo>
  </middle>
  <middle id="2">
      <data>value</data>
  </middle>
  <middle id="3">
      <data>value</data>
      <foo>bar</foo>
  </middle>
</top>

I want to match the 'middle' nodes that _don't_ have the 'foo' node
(id==2).
This seems to work:

<xsl:template match="/">
  [stuff before]
  <xsl:for-each select="//middle">
    <xsl:if test="not (foo[node()]">
      [Whatever I want to do]
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

(You get the general idea.) Isn't there any simpler way to do this?? 
I'd
rather do something where, in one line, I match the 'middle' nodes
without
the 'foo' tag, and then do an unconditional loop over these nodes.

Thanks!

-Ted



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