Node counting

sarahl2 · February 21st, 2006, 12:21 PM

Hello everyone -

Here's the basic format of what I'm trying to translate:

Code:

<PartyList>
<Count>3</Count>
<Party>
<UniqueID>1</UniqueID>
<Type>FRIEND</Type>
<First>Sam</First>
<Last>Johnson</Last>
</Party>
<Party>
<UniqueID>2</UniqueID>
<Type>FRIEND</Type>
<FirstName>Jean</FirstName>
<LastName>Miller</LastName>
</Party>
<Party>
<UniqueID>3</UniqueID>
<Type>EMPLOYER</Type>
<FirstName>Jack</FirstName>
<LastName>Summers</LastName>
</Party>
</PartyList>

I've been trying to create an xslt template that will count the instances where the <Type> is 'FRIEND'

This is one of the many, many things I tried:

Code:

<xsl:template match='*'>
<xsl:for-each select='.'>
<xsl:call-template name='friend_test'>
<xsl:with-param name='test' select='.'/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:for-each> 
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name='friend_test'>
<xsl:param name='test' select='.'/>
<xsl:value-of select='count([Type="FRIEND"])'/>
</xsl:template>

I know that I'm way off - this creates an XPATH error when I try to use it. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance -

mhkay · February 21st, 2006, 01:39 PM

<xsl:template match="PartyList">
  <xsl:value-of select="count(Party[Type='FRIEND'])"/>
</xsl:template>

There are a number of weaknesses in your code:

<xsl:for-each select='.'>
  -- this is not wrong, but it's silly, because it does nothing

<xsl:call-template name='friend_test'>
  <xsl:with-param name='test' select='.'/>
  -- the context node is an implicit parameter to a named template, there's no need to make it an explicit parameter. Also, when supplying a node to a template, it's often better to make it a match template rather than a named template.

<xsl:template name='friend_test'>
<xsl:param name='test' select='.'/>
   -- why declare a parameter that you don't use?

<xsl:value-of select='count([Type="FRIEND"])'/>
   -- square brackets are always used to qualify something, you need to say what you are qualifying.

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

sarahl2 · February 21st, 2006, 02:25 PM

Hello again, and thank you for your reply.

I apologize for how things look in my code sample. Basically, I've spliced that piece together from the growing list of approaches I've tried.

Thank you very much for your help, and I will give it try.