Noob question

[Pravljica]

Hello,

Now I have this:
<xsl:for-each select="A">
<xsl:sort select="B" />
</xsl:for-each>

Now I would like to get first node from this sorted list (which has the
smallest value). But if I write:
<xsl:value-of select="A[1]/B" />, I get first node from unordered list
(the first node in xml).
How can I get the first node from this sort?

Thanks

[Martin Honnen]

Pravljica wrote:

Now I have this:
<xsl:for-each select="A">
<xsl:sort select="B" />
</xsl:for-each>

Now I would like to get first node from this sorted list (which has the
smallest value). But if I write:
<xsl:value-of select="A[1]/B" />, I get first node from unordered list
(the first node in xml).
How can I get the first node from this sort?

With XSLT 1.0 you would need to sort into a variable and then make use
of an extension function to convert the variable value, a result tree
fragment, into a node set.
Or you need to chain two stylesheets where the first stylesheet sorts
the input XML and the second works with the sorted result of the first.
--

Martin Honnen
http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/

[Pravljica]

Hey,

I didn't understood a bit of your answer :)
How do you sort into variable? Also - what is an extension function?
Can you give me a link or something?

I need this to get smallest date from my xml, I thought to do it this
way. I sort on date, and the first node is smallest date, the last node
is biggest date. Maybe I can do this easier?

Thanks

[Martin Honnen]

Pravljica wrote:

I didn't understood a bit of your answer :)
How do you sort into variable? Also - what is an extension function?
Can you give me a link or something?
Here is a thread that has both an XSLT 1.0 example as well as an XSLT
2.0 example.
<http://groups.google.c om/group/microsoft.publi c.xsl/browse_frm/thread/4b125811eb0b4f8 9/7e8b9562a75eb0b c?lnk=st&q=perf orm-sort+group%3Ami crosoft.public. xsl+author%3Aho nnen&rnum=1&hl= en#7e8b9562a75e b0bc>

I need this to get smallest date from my xml, I thought to do it this
way. I sort on date, and the first node is smallest date, the last node
is biggest date. Maybe I can do this easier?

Depends on the date format. If you have e.g.

<date-list>
<date>2006010 1</date>
<date>2005010 1</date>
<date>2006052 7</date>
<date>2004123 1</date>
</date-list>

then the XPath expression

/date-list/date[not(. > ../date)]

gives you the minimum date (e.g. 20041231).
For your earlier example you might also want to try

<xsl:for-each select="A">
<xsl:sort select="B" />
<xsl:if test="position( ) = 1">
<xsl:value-of select="." />
</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
--

Martin Honnen
http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/