Can you apply templates backwards?

JohnBampton · March 5th, 2009, 11:52 AM

if I have this structure

Code:

<A>
    <B></B>
    <B>
        <C>
            <D></D>
            <E>
                <F></F>
            </E>
        </C>
    </B>
    <B></B>
</A>

Can i get this structure

Code:

<A>
    
    <B>
        <C>
            
            <E>
                <F></F>
            </E>
        </C>
    </B>
    
</A>

when given the element F as the starting point? That is get a direct path back to the root? The names of the elements are different every time, we just get given the starting location.

mhkay · March 5th, 2009, 12:59 PM

If you can bind a global variable $F to the F node, then you can do (in XSLT 2.0)

Code:

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

<xsl:variable name="ancestors" select="$F/ancestor-or-self::*"/>

<xsl:template match="*[. intersect $ancestors]">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </
</

<xsl:template match="*"/>

JohnBampton · March 5th, 2009, 01:26 PM

With a bit of modification to include attributes it worked really well, thanks a lot