I'm trying to transform a XML file I have output from an Oracle database using Oracle's Java SDK.

The output comes in a standard format:

<ROWSET>
   <ROW rownum="1">
      <COLNAME>Data...</COLNAME>
      <COLNAME>Data...</COLNAME>
   </ROW>
   <ROW rownum="2">
      <COLNAME>Data...</COLNAME>
      <COLNAME>Data...</COLNAME>
   </ROW>

  ...

</ROWSET>

The problem I have is that I have grouped data, for example:

<ROWSET>
   <ROW rownum="1">
      <STUDENTID>10002</STUDENTID>
      <NAME>Fred</NAME>
      <SURNAME>Bloggs</SURNAME>
      <COURSE>Geography For Beginners</COURSE>
   </ROW>
   <ROW rownum="2">
      <STUDENTID>10002</STUDENTID>
      <NAME>Fred</NAME>
      <SURNAME>Bloggs</SURNAME>
      <COURSE>Advanced English</COURSE>
   </ROW>

   <ROW rownum="3">
         <STUDENTID>10010</STUDENTID>
         <NAME>Arnie</NAME>
         <SURNAME>Middle</SURNAME>
         <COURSE>Math</COURSE>
   </ROW>

   <ROW rownum="4">
            <STUDENTID>10010</STUDENTID>
            <NAME>Arnie</NAME>
            <SURNAME>Middle</SURNAME>
            <COURSE>Physics</COURSE>
   </ROW>

  ...

</ROWSET>


Obviously, course is at the wrong level. This is a result of the records returned from the
database in a 'flat' format:

10002, "Fred", "Bloggs", "Geography For Beginners"
10002, "Fred", "Bloggs", "Advanced English"

What is the best way to transform this into the following format?:

<ROWSET>
   <ROW rownum="1">

      <STUDENTID>10002</STUDENTID>
      <NAME>Fred</NAME>
      <SURNAME>Bloggs</SURNAME>

      <COURSES>
          <COURSE>Geography For Beginners</COURSE>
          <COURSE>Advanced English</COURSE>
      <COURSES>

   </ROW>

  ...

</ROWSET>

I've been reading Micheal Kay's XSLT book on pages 622-626, but unfortunately
his example uses data with attributed vales e.g.

<cities>
    <city name="Paris" country="France">
    <city name="Djon" country="France">
    <city name="Crossville" country="US">
</cities>

I'm fairly new to XSLT so I've no idea how I'd translate his example to my situation.
Any ideas on how I would approach my problem? Thanks.

For grouping in XSLT 2.0 use xsl:for-each-group. For grouping in XSLT 1.0 see http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/grouping.

It's not clear to me where you are having difficulty. The difference between grouping on attributes and grouping on child elements is surely trivial.

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

Thanks Michael. I realise now that I probably should have read the 'Read this first before posting thread'.

The difference between grouping with elements and attributes may seem trivial, but not to me at the level I'm at currently! :)