Hi there,

below is an example of my source xml.

<root>
    <secondary relatedID="1">
        <a a4="apple" a5="pear"/>
    </secondary>
    <main id="1">
        <fruit>
            <a a1="orange" a2="grape"/>
            <a a1="lime" a3="lemon"/>
        </fruit>
    </main>
</root>

My desired result should be like

<root>
    <main id="1">
        <fruit>
            <a a1="orange" a2="grape" a4="apple" a5="pear"/>
            <a a1="lime" a3="lemon" a4="apple" a5="pear"/>
        </fruit>
    </main>
</root>

The following is my XSLT. Could someone kindly pls point out where I am goin wrong? Thanks

<xsl:template match="main">
        <main>
            <xsl:for-each select="fruit">
                <fruits>
                    <xsl:apply-templates select="a"/>
                </fruits>
            </xsl:for-each>
        </main>
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="a">
        <gg>
            <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
            <xsl:copy-of select="/../secondary[@relatedID=current()/@id]/a/@*"/>
        </gg>
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="@*|node()|comment()">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()|comment()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

/.. (or any path beginning /..) selects nothing. That's because "/" selects the root node (that is, the document node, the parent of the node which you have confusingly named "root"), and .. selects its parent, and the root node by definition has no parent.

Try /root/secondary[@relatedID=current()/@id]/a/@*"/>


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

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the pointer but it still doesnt seem to be matching.

I even tried using the axes of ancestor and ancestor-or-self
<xsl:copy-of select="/root/secondary [@relatedID=ancestor::main/@id]/a/@*"/>

but it doesnt work.

I created two attributes to see if my expression equates. The result of both attribute matches but I dont seem to see the problem why it doesnt copy the attributes from secondary to main. Your feedback is much appreciated. thanks

<xsl:attribute name="secondaryID"><xsl:value-of select="/root/secondary/@relatedID"/></xsl:attribute>

<xsl:attribute name="MainID"><xsl:value-of select="ancestor::main/@id"/></xsl:attribute>

I can't see what's wrong from this snippet, sorry.

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

Because the current() node is the a element and not the main element the id will not be found, also you don't pass the id attribute on your main element still, so also <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/> pass that after <main>
when you add ../../ to your path like this: /root/secondary[@relatedID=current()/../../@id]/a/@*


you will get:
<root>
    <secondary relatedID="1">
        <a a4="apple" a5="pear"/>
    </secondary>
    <main id="1"><fruits><gg a1="orange" a2="grape" a4="apple" a5="pear"/><gg a1="lime" a3="lemon" a4="apple" a5="pear"/></fruits></main>
</root>

is that what you want?
you will have to filter out the secondary element if you don't want that, because now the element will be copied through the template <xsl:template match="@*|node()|comment()"> for instance by adding <xsl:template match="secondary"/>