Limit Unique (Distinct) Element Returns

ritagr · March 12th, 2013, 06:37 PM

Hello.

In my XML document, I have multiple <UMPREAUTHID> elements.
This element is assigned to each <DETAILLINE> and may have a unique or duplicate value.

Using XSLT Version 1.0 I'm using the following to return only the unique values of <UMPREAUTHID>.

Code:

<xsl:for-each select="DETAIL/DETAILLINE">
  <fo:inline color="#000000">
    <xsl:if test="UMPREAUTHID[.!='']>
      <xsl:if test="not(UMPREAUTHID[.=parent::*/preceding-sibling::*/UMPREAUTHID])">
        <xsl:value-of select="UMPREAUTHID"/>
        <fo:inline font-size="4pt"> </fo:inline>
      </xsl:if>
    </xsl:if>
  </fo:inline>
</xsl:for-each>

For example, here are some values:
<UMPREAUTHID>UMPREAUTH_NBR1</UMPREAUTHID>
<UMPREAUTHID>UMPREAUTH_NBR2</UMPREAUTHID>
<UMPREAUTHID>UMPREAUTH_NBR1</UMPREAUTHID>
<UMPREAUTHID>UMPREAUTH_NBR3</UMPREAUTHID>
<UMPREAUTHID>UMPREAUTH_NBR4</UMPREAUTHID>
<UMPREAUTHID>UMPREAUTH_NBR5</UMPREAUTHID>
<UMPREAUTHID>UMPREAUTH_NBR3</UMPREAUTHID>

However, I want to limit the return of unique <UMPREAUTHID> values to only three values. So, using the above example values, I only want to return
UMPREAUTH_NBR1 UMPREAUTH_NBR2 UMPREAUTH_NBR3

Is there a way to accomplish this?

I would also like to replace the space between each <UMPREAUTHID> with a comma but I can't have a comma after the last <UMPREAUTHID> displayed. So,

Code:

    <fo:inline font-size="4pt"> </fo:inline>

would be replaced with

Code:

    <fo:inline>,</fo:inline>

I'm not sure how to do prevent the last comma from displaying.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Rita

Martin Honnen · March 13th, 2013, 06:39 AM

It should suffice to move the if conditions into predicates and then add a predicate with position() < 4 e.g.

Code:

<xsl:for-each select="DETAIL/DETAILLINE[UMPREAUTHID[.!='']][not(UMPREAUTHID[.=parent::*/preceding-sibling::*/UMPREAUTHID])][position() &lt; 4]">
  <fo:inline color="#000000">
        <xsl:value-of select="UMPREAUTHID"/>
        <fo:inline font-size="4pt"> </fo:inline>
  </fo:inline>
</xsl:for-each>

As for the comma, use

Code:

<xsl:for-each  select="DETAIL/DETAILLINE[UMPREAUTHID[.!='']][not(UMPREAUTHID[.=parent::*/preceding-sibling::*/UMPREAUTHID])][position()  &lt; 4]">
  <fo:inline color="#000000">
        <xsl:if test="position() > 1"><fo:inline font-size="4pt">, </fo:inline></xsl:if>
        <xsl:value-of select="UMPREAUTHID"/>      
  </fo:inline>
</xsl:for-each>

ritagr · March 13th, 2013, 11:23 AM

Hi Martin,

Thank you so much for your AWESOME help.
It's so great the way you combined the two tests into the "for-each" statement. Also, the way you placed the test to print the comma before printing
the element - I would never have thought of doing it that way!!

Many thanks,
Rita