Hi,

I'm new to xml and I'm having problems with variables:
I have one variable defined before a for-each loop:
<xsl:variable name="nameList"><xsl:value-of select="output-flow/@class.name"/></xsl:variable>
which is compared with the value of the attribute "name" of the element "class" inside the loop:

<xsl:for-each select="package/class">
   <xsl:if test="$nameList=@name">
       (here comes some code)
   </xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>

But the test is not working as I expected, unless I write:
    <xsl:if test="string($nameList)=@name">

Has anybody any idea??

Are you using XSLT 1.0 or 2.0?

I can't think immediately of any reason why the comparison should work with string() and not without it.

But you shouldn't get into the habit of writing

<xsl:variable name="nameList"><xsl:value-of select="output-flow/@class.name"/></xsl:variable>

It's very commonly done, and it's crazy. Write:

<xsl:variable name="nameList" select="output-flow/@class.name"/>

Otherwise you're creating a new temporary document node, and copying the attribute to a new text node, when all you want is a reference to the original attribute.


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

Hi mhkay,

I'm using XSLT 1.0 and by the moment we can't move to XSLT 2.0.

Thank for your recommendation, from now on I'll use it to define the variables. But the fact is that I obtain the same result in the comparision with both of them.
And now we're starting to be afraid of having done more comparisons without writing "string" and which could need it.

Thanks for your attention

There is one case where string(@attr)=x gives a different result from @attr=x, namely when @attr does not exist and x is "". In this situation @attr="" gives false, while string(@attr)="" gives true.

However, this doesn't apply your situation where you defined the variable as a result tree fragment, since that can never be empty (assuming the product implements the spec correctly - which one can't always rely on)

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

hi again,

thank you very much again for your time. I'll continue looking for the solution and promise to tell you when found!!