Parallel data traversal

[Vojta]

Hi,

I have some xml data looking like this
<root>
<items1>
<i1>..</i1>
<i1>..</i1>
</items1>
<items2>
<i2>..</i2>
<i2>..</i2>
</items2>
</root>

If my context node is the k-th node in items1 is to possible to create
XPath that finds a k-th node in items2? Something like "../../
items2[position() = position(.)]" - which does not work because "." is
bound to some "i2" node inside the square brackets.

Some motivation: we use a "repeater" component that traverses child
nodes of one node. The current node in the repeater is the context
node. The user then uses xpaths relative to the current node to get
the data. And I need some hack to be able to reference nodes at the
same position but inside a different node.

Obviously the most natural solution is to do some data preprocessing
to "zip" items1 and items2 together or modify our repeater to be able
to have multiple context nodes. But isn't there any pure xpath way to
do this?

Thanks

 

[Pavel Lepin]

<root>
<items1>
<i1>..</i1>
<i1>..</i1>
</items1>
<items2>
<i2>..</i2>
<i2>..</i2>
</items2>
</root>

If my context node is the k-th node in items1 is to
possible to create XPath that finds a k-th node in items2?
Something like "../../ items2[position() = position(.)]" -
which does not work because "." is bound to some "i2" node
inside the square brackets.

Obviously the most natural solution is to do some data
preprocessing to "zip" items1 and items2 together or
modify our repeater to be able to have multiple context
nodes.

That is the most natural solution indeed. And it's a trivial
transformation, too.

But isn't there any pure xpath way to do this?

Short answer: no, there isn't any pure XPath way of doing
that. You need either variables (that is, you have to
generate the XPath expression on the fly, it cannot be
static), or XPath extensions (XSLT defines the current()
function which returns the current node; but the notion of
the current node is defined by XSLT spec as well, and isn't
by itself meaningful outside of XSLT context).

 

[David Carlisle]

Hi,

I have some xml data looking like this
<root>
<items1>
<i1>..</i1>
<i1>..</i1>
</items1>
<items2>
<i2>..</i2>
<i2>..</i2>
</items2>
</root>

If my context node is the k-th node in items1 is to possible to create
XPath that finds a k-th node in items2? Something like "../../
items2[position() = position(.)]" - which does not work because "." is
bound to some "i2" node inside the square brackets.

Some motivation: we use a "repeater" component that traverses child
nodes of one node. The current node in the repeater is the context
node. The user then uses xpaths relative to the current node to get
the data. And I need some hack to be able to reference nodes at the
same position but inside a different node.

Obviously the most natural solution is to do some data preprocessing
to "zip" items1 and items2 together or modify our repeater to be able
to have multiple context nodes. But isn't there any pure xpath way to
do this?

Thanks

not pure xpath1 you need xslt1 or a similar host language that can bind
xpath variables.

however in xpath2 you can express this, for example

for $p in 1+count(preceding-sibling::i1) return
.../preceding-sibling::items2/i2[$p]

David