Hello.. I have been trying to figure this out for the last hour, but I am
baffled... I'm hoping someone can help!

I'm trying to write an xpath expression to find the position of the node
with value "c" in the following xml. The result I'm looking for in this case
should be 3. Does anyone have any ideas?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<TopNode>
<FieldDefinition>a</FieldDefinition>
<FieldDefinition>b</FieldDefinition>
<FieldDefinition>c</FieldDefinition>
<FieldDefinition>d</FieldDefinition>
<FieldDefinition>e</FieldDefinition>
</TopNode>

My idea was something like:

/*/position(". = 'c'")

But that doesn't work.

Could anyone please help! Thank you very much in advance.
--
Steve

/*/*[.='c']


Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev




"Steve" <smsinger3@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
news:6320D8CE-180D-4173-92D7-771D2CDB7FE1@microsoft.com...[color=blue]
> Hello.. I have been trying to figure this out for the last hour, but I am
> baffled... I'm hoping someone can help!
>
> I'm trying to write an xpath expression to find the position of the node
> with value "c" in the following xml. The result I'm looking for in this
> case
> should be 3. Does anyone have any ideas?
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <TopNode>
> <FieldDefinition>a</FieldDefinition>
> <FieldDefinition>b</FieldDefinition>
> <FieldDefinition>c</FieldDefinition>
> <FieldDefinition>d</FieldDefinition>
> <FieldDefinition>e</FieldDefinition>
> </TopNode>
>
> My idea was something like:
>
> /*/position(". = 'c'")
>
> But that doesn't work.
>
> Could anyone please help! Thank you very much in advance.
> --
> Steve[/color]

Steve wrote:[color=blue]
> Hello.. I have been trying to figure this out for the last hour, but I am
> baffled... I'm hoping someone can help!
>
> I'm trying to write an xpath expression to find the position of the node
> with value "c" in the following xml. The result I'm looking for in this case
> should be 3. Does anyone have any ideas?
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <TopNode>
> <FieldDefinition>a</FieldDefinition>
> <FieldDefinition>b</FieldDefinition>
> <FieldDefinition>c</FieldDefinition>
> <FieldDefinition>d</FieldDefinition>
> <FieldDefinition>e</FieldDefinition>
> </TopNode>
>
> My idea was something like:
>
> /*/position(". = 'c'")
>
> But that doesn't work.
>
> Could anyone please help! Thank you very much in advance.[/color]

position() won't help you here because it's a null function (no
arguments).

<xsl:value-of select="count(/*/*[.='c']/preceding-sibling::*)+1"/>

This will work provided you know that no other elements types apart from
FieldDefinition are permitted in the content model of TopNode. If other
elements types are allowed, then you will have to qualify the element
nodes located by the preceding-sibling axis.

///Peter

Sorry, was misled by the subject.

Peter Flyn has provided an answer.

Another possibility is to use <xsl:number> , depending on what you mean
by "the position of the element"

Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev


"Dimitre Novatchev" <dimitren@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:43f78548$0$12881$892e7fe2@authen.yellow.readf reenews.net...[color=blue]
> /*/*[.='c']
>
>
> Cheers,
> Dimitre Novatchev
>
>
>
>
> "Steve" <smsinger3@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
> news:6320D8CE-180D-4173-92D7-771D2CDB7FE1@microsoft.com...[color=green]
>> Hello.. I have been trying to figure this out for the last hour, but I am
>> baffled... I'm hoping someone can help!
>>
>> I'm trying to write an xpath expression to find the position of the node
>> with value "c" in the following xml. The result I'm looking for in this
>> case
>> should be 3. Does anyone have any ideas?
>>
>> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
>> <TopNode>
>> <FieldDefinition>a</FieldDefinition>
>> <FieldDefinition>b</FieldDefinition>
>> <FieldDefinition>c</FieldDefinition>
>> <FieldDefinition>d</FieldDefinition>
>> <FieldDefinition>e</FieldDefinition>
>> </TopNode>
>>
>> My idea was something like:
>>
>> /*/position(". = 'c'")
>>
>> But that doesn't work.
>>
>> Could anyone please help! Thank you very much in advance.
>> --
>> Steve[/color]
>
>[/color]