RE: [xsl] Sorting a NodeSet Contained Within a Variable

[Bryan Tulloch <b dot tulloch at solicitec dot com>]

I am hopelessly confused! I can't use the apply-templates method because the
processor won't let me create a template that matches a variable.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: David Carlisle [mailto:davidc@nag.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 12:05 PM
To: xsl-list@lists.mulberrytech.com
Subject: Re: [xsl] Sorting a NodeSet Contained Within a Variable



   How can I build it so that it has more than one element?

   Bryan


   > <xsl:variable name="casenumber" select="msxml:node-set($casenumber.tf)"
   />

   That set only has one element, a root node, so if you sort it into any
   orser, it won't change much.

   David

(please don't take things off list)

You can't. xsl:variable always creates a root node if used with non
empty content.

A variable is just like a document, On your main input document you can
legally do

<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:sort select="any_old_rubbish"/>

but the sort only sorts one node (/) so never has a visible effect.

Doing 

<xsl:apply-templates select="$xxx">
<xsl:sort select="any_old_rubbish"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>

is exactly the same.

If you want to sort the top level elments of the tree, select them:

<xsl:apply-templates select="$xxx/*">
<xsl:sort select="some_sort_critrion"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>


David

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