Hi,

I hope someone can help me with the following code examples?:

[u]XML</u>
<ShippingInstructions ShippingType="Collection">
<ShippingDate DateTimeType="Earliest Delivery">20060216 07:00</ShippingDate>
<ShippingDate DateTimeType="Dispatch Date">20060216 08:30</ShippingDate>
<ShippingDate DateTimeType="Earliest Available">20060216 07:00</ShippingDate>
<ShippingDate DateTimeType="Latest Available">20060216 18:00</ShippingDate>
<ShippingDate DateTimeType="Latest Delivery">20060216 17:00</ShippingDate>
<Description>test example</Description>
</ShippingInstructions>

From the above code extraction, I need to compare each 'ShippingDate' element
which I'm running through with the following xsl routine:

[u]XSL</u>
<xsl:template name="ShippingCollection">
<xsl:attribute name="ShippingType"><xsl:text>Collection</xsl:text></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:for-each select="ShippingDate">
<xsl:element name="ShippingDate">
<xsl:variable name="ShippingDateNodes" select="../ShippingDate"/>

<xsl:variable name="dteColl" select="."/>

<xsl:variable name="lenColl" select="string-length(.)"/>

<xsl:variable name="strColl" select="$dteColl/@*"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="position()=1">

<xsl:attribute name="DateTimeType"><xsl:value-of select="$strColl"/></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
....
</xsl:when>
....
</xsl:choose>
....
</xsl:element>
....
</xsl:for-each>
....
</xsl:template name>

[u]Q1</u>
How do I compare the times between two nodes?
I've seen two examples on the web (op:datetime-equal & fn:hours-from-dateTime),
but I don't know how this is coded in an xsl statement. Using the XML example, can
you show me how this is implimented?

[u]Q2</u>
From the XSL, is this the correct way to retrieve the node value?

<xsl:attribute name="DateTimeType"><xsl:value-of select="$strColl"/></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="."/>

It works, but is there a more robust method?

Thanks,


Neal

A Northern Soul

__________________
Neal

A Northern Soul

Q1. In XSLT 1.0 the best way to compare the dates/times is probably to reduce them to numbers. Strip the space and colon and convert to a number by using

number(translate(., ' :', ''))

and then just compare using "&lt;" or "&gt;".

In XSLT 2.0/XPath 2.0 there are more specific ways of comparing dates and times, but only if you use the standard ISO representation which is yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.

Q2. A more robust method to copy the element is to include the identity template in your stylesheet and then use xsl:apply-templates. The identity template rule (one variant) looks like this

<xsl:template match="*">
<xsl:copy>
  <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>



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

Thanks, that's great.

One thing though.... I'm having trouble reading the values from each variable when the 'for each' routine has completed. How do I declare them and retrive the values once the routine has finished? If I declare them globally as:

<xsl:variable name="str1"></xsl:variable>

and perform the following code, a message box informs me that the 'str1' variable has been declared previously.

<xsl:variable name="str1"></xsl:variable>

<xsl:when test="position()=1">

<xsl:attribute name="DateTimeType"><xsl:value-of select="$strColl"/></xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
<xsl:variable name="str1" select="number(translate(., ' :', ''))"/>

Sorry!!!, but I'm not used to xsl syntax.

Thanks,

Neal

A Northern Soul

If you need to capture the result of for-each processing in a variable, you do this:

<xsl:variable name="x">
  <xsl:for-each ...

  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:variable>

If you need to return more than one result, construct a tree-fragment containing new elements, e.g.

<xsl:variable name="x">
  <xsl:for-each ...
    <part1><xsl:value-of select="...."/></part1>
    <part2><xsl:value-of select="...."/></part2>

  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:variable>



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

I understand the logic behind the first part, but I don't understand the logic to:

<part1><xsl:value-of select="...."/></part1>
<part2><xsl:value-of select="...."/></part2>

is it something like?
<part1><xsl:value-of select="number(translate(., ' :', ''))"/></part1>


Are Part1; Part2; etc elements of 'x'?

How do you extract each part separately?

Regards,


Neal

A Northern Soul