Counting self axes

[rob.guitar.rob]

Hi,

This may be a stupid question, but if you count a self axe will it
always return 1?

For example:

count(self::*)

and

count(../../this_path/overhere/self::*)

Any help would be much appreciated. My XSL transformation is doing a
couple of strange things and I am not 100% sure on this. (plus it be
more efficient to put + 1 when required!)

Thanks, Rob.

[Joris Gillis]

Hi,
Tempore 20:28:59, die Monday 01 August 2005 AD, hinc in foro {comp.text.xml} scripsit <ro************@gmail.com>:

This may be a stupid question, but if you count a self axe will it
always return 1?

No, not always.
This will only return 1 if the context node is a node which has a qname: i.e. elements and processing instructions. Not all XSLT - implementations follow this though: AltovaXSLT allows attributes as well.

regards,
--
Joris Gillis (http://users.telenet.be/root-jg/me.html)
Deserta faciunt et innovationem appelant

[rob.guitar.rob]

Thanks!, Rob.
Joris Gillis wrote:

Hi,
Tempore 20:28:59, die Monday 01 August 2005 AD, hinc in foro {comp.text.xml} scripsit <ro************@gmail.com>:

This may be a stupid question, but if you count a self axe will it
always return 1?

No, not always.
This will only return 1 if the context node is a node which has a qname: i.e. elements and processing instructions. Not all XSLT - implementations follow this though: AltovaXSLT allows attributes as well.

regards,
--
Joris Gillis (http://users.telenet.be/root-jg/me.html)
Deserta faciunt et innovationem appelant

[Richard Tobin]

In article <11**********************@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
<ro************@gmail.com> wrote:

This may be a stupid question, but if you count a self axe will it
always return 1?

The self axis of a node always contains exactly one node (the node
itself). So count(.../self::node()) will always return 1, if "..."
selects a single node.

self::* on the other hand only matches elements, because the principal
node type for the self axis is element. So if "..." selects a single
element, count(.../self::*) will return 1. If it selects a single
node of some other type, it will return 0.

-- Richard

[rob.guitar.rob]

Thanks, thats really helped to clear it up.

Thanks, Rob

[Dimitre Novatchev]

"Joris Gillis" <ro**@pandora.be> wrote in message
news:op***************@news.pandora.be...

Hi,
Tempore 20:28:59, die Monday 01 August 2005 AD, hinc in foro
{comp.text.xml} scripsit <ro************@gmail.com>:

This may be a stupid question, but if you count a self axe will it
always return 1?
No, not always.
This will only return 1 if the context node is a node which has a qname:
i.e. elements and processing instructions.

That's not correct.

1) self::* selects the current node only if it is an element.; not if it
is a processing instruction.

If the current node is a processing instruction, then the following
expression (using the "self" axis) selects the current node:

2) self::processing-instruction()

3) Regardless of the type of the node, it is selected by:

self::node()

Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev

Not all XSLT - implementations follow this though: AltovaXSLT allows
attributes as well.

regards,
--
Joris Gillis (http://users.telenet.be/root-jg/me.html)
Deserta faciunt et innovationem appelant