Breaking the XML data into rows

Shalini · May 13th, 2004, 11:44 AM

I have the XML as

<Information>
    <Headlines>
    <Info>
        <Sym>BEAS</Sym>
        <Sym>BMC</Sym>
        <Sym>CA</Sym>
        <Sym>MERQ</Sym>
        <Sym>MSFT</Sym>
        <Sym>NTIQ</Sym>
        <Sym>NOVL</Sym>
        <Sym>ORCL</Sym>
        <Sym>PSFT</Sym>
        <Sym>QSFT</Sym>
                <Sym>ACDF</Sym>
                <Sym>GHT</Sym>
                <Sym>QIOU</Sym>
                <Sym>QREW</Sym>
                <Sym>NBHJ</Sym>
    </Info>
    </Headlines>
</Information>

Now I want to

* loop through the <Info>/<Sym>
* see how many records I have
* display the first 3 records in the first row of a table
* display the next 3 records in the second row of the table
* display the next 3 records in the third row of the table and so on

Is it possible to just use XSL to create the table and display the records in the fashion above?

sundar_revathi · May 13th, 2004, 12:00 PM

Use the <xsl:if test="position()" > construct. position() gives you
the number of the element. Then apply different templates depending
on the position. Each <xsl:template match="MyTable1..table2.. etc">
would handle a separate table.

SS

Shalini · May 13th, 2004, 12:32 PM

I wouldn't want to use different templates. Is there any other way I can do this? How do I use the position()?

sundar_revathi · May 13th, 2004, 12:37 PM

I can't see any other way..this could be a limitation in my know-how.
Regrading position, you would use it with <xsl:choose> and say
position() <=3 position() <= 6 etc..

SS

Shalini · May 13th, 2004, 03:11 PM

I tried the following, but it displays all the records in 1 row one after the other rather than 3 records per row. Can someone help me out here?

<xsl:template match="/">

    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">

    <xsl:for-each select="Information/Headlines/Info/Sym">
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
        <xsl:if test="Symbol[position() = 3]"><br/></xsl:if>
    </xsl:for-each>

    </table>

    <br/>

    The Total Number of Records is :
    <xsl:value-of select="count(Information/Headlines/Info/Sym)"></xsl:value-of>

    </xsl:template>

mphare · May 28th, 2004, 02:31 PM

I am doing something very similar, and having a very similar problem with XSLT. (I'm doing 2 columns, not 3)

My XML source is:

Code:

    <project-news>
        <news-item level="1">
            <item-title>FLASHWAVE 4100 R4.1 Readies for PR1</item-title>
            <item-text>Work continues to bring the 4100 Project (4.1) toward PR1</item-text>
            <item-text>The NMIS has been updated and is Draft ready for PR1</item-text>
        </news-item>
    </project-news>

The XSLT I'm working with is:

Code:

    
    <xsl:template match="news-item" mode="new">
        <xsl:variable name="num-items" select="count(item-text)"/>
        <table width="80%">
            <tr>
                <th>
                    <xsl:if test="$num-items > 1">
                        <xsl:attribute name="colspan">2</xsl:attribute>
                    </xsl:if>
                    <xsl:value-of select="item-title"/>
                </th>
            </tr>
            <xsl:for-each select="item-text">
                <xsl:if  test="position() mod 2 != 0"><tr></xsl:if>
                <td><xsl:value-of select="."/></td>
                <xsl:if  test="position() mod 2 = 0 or position() = last()"></tr></xsl:if>
            </xsl:for-each>
        </table>
    </xsl:template>

Obviously, this isn't going to work as the LREs: <tr> and </tr> are not matching correctly up in the document object, the nodes are not complete.

Michael Kay says (paraphrased from his book)

Quote:

quote:It is tempting to think of this as a sequence of a <tr> tag, some text and a </tr> closing tag.
However, this is not a true picture of what is going on, and it is best not to think about it this way, because otherwise you will start wondering, for example, how to delay writing the end tag untilsome condition is encountered in the input.

Yup, that's what I'm doing. Unfortunatly, he doesn't go on to offer a solution.

So I am open to solutions.

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Michael Hare