The following code gives an alphabetical list of h2's, 1 for each report "@type". In the xml file the "Report"s are NOT in alphabetical order by type. Why is this? In addition I need to sort the reports by title within each group, which so far eludes me.

TIA

<xsl:for-each-group select="/Reports/Report" group-by="@type">
<h2><xsl:value-of select="current-grouping-key()"/></h2>[list]<xsl:for-each select="current-group()/Rpt_Title">
<li><a href="{concat('DESC_',current()/../Rpt_Code,'.html')}">
<xsl:apply-templates/></a></li>
</xsl:for-each></ul>
</xsl:for-each-group>

xml:
<Reports>
<Report type='Transactions'>
<Rpt_Code>TXNSEC_04</Rpt_Code>
<Rpt_Title>Detail of Transactions</Rpt_Title>
</Report>
<Report type='Data Extract'>
<Rpt_Code>DWLD_03</Rpt_Code>
<Rpt_Title>Dividends Data Extract</Rpt_Title>
</Report>
</Reports>

result:
<h2>Data Extract</h2>[list]<li><a href="DESC_DWLD_03.html">Dividends Data Extract</a></li></ul>
<h2>Transactions</h2>[list]<li><a href="DESC_TXNSEC_04.html">Detail of Transactions</a></li></ul>

The default order of groups is "order of first appearance" - i.e. the groups are ordered according to the position of their first item in the original population.

To sort the groups according to the value of the grouping key, use
<xsl:sort select="current-grouping-key()"/> immediately within <xsl:for-each-group>

To sort the items within each group, use an <xsl:sort> element as a child of the <xsl:apply-templates> instruction.

If you think you are getting results that don't follow the spec, it's useful to say what XSLT processor you are using.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

Is "order of first appearance" the order in which they are encountered in the xml file going from top to bottom or is it something else? I am using an evaluation version of XMLSpy 2005r3.

Thanks for your help,
KSmith

Frustrating ... even this yields alpha by type no matter how the xml is organized.

<xsl:for-each-group select="/Reports/Report" group-by="@type">
<xsl:sort select="current-grouping-key()" order="descending" data-type="text"/>

Lost ...

"order of first appearance" reflects the order of items in the result of the expression in the select attribute of xsl:for-each-group. In most cases this will be document order (what you describe as "the order in which they are encountered in the xml file going from top to bottom") but not necessarily. For example if you do <xsl:for-each-group select="reverse(//a)"> then it will be reverse document order.

It sounds from your description as if XML Spy has a bug here, which wouldn't be that surprising, as their XSLT 2.0 processor is very new.



Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference