Re: Variables in select attributes

[Jeni Tennison <jeni at friday dot u-net dot com>]

Willy,

>I'm trying to do something like this:
[snip]
>          <xsl:variable name="curr_name">
>             <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
>          </xsl:variable>
>          <xsl:value-of select="count(//$curr_name)"/>
>          <xsl:value-of select="$curr_name"/>

There is probably a technical explanation waiting to leap forward, but you
can think of this as not working because the $curr_name variable holds a
string, something like 'foo'.  If you imagine substituting that string into
the XPath expressions, you get:

  <xsl:value-of select="count(//'foo')" />
  <xsl:value-of select="'foo'" />

Perhaps that makes it clearer why it won't work: the XPath processor isn't
expecting a string there.  You could instead try:

  <xsl:value-of select="count(//*[name() = $curr_name])" />
  <xsl:value-of select="*[name() = $curr_name]" />

This will give the effect that you're after in this example.  There are
other alternatives, I believe, in the form of extension functions that
evaluate strings as XPath expressions, but I don't know the details of
them, nor what XSL processor you're using and whether it has them.

I hope that helps anyway,

Jeni

Dr Jeni Tennison
Epistemics Ltd * Strelley Hall * Nottingham * NG8 6PE
tel: 0115 906 1301 * fax: 0115 906 1304 * email: jeni.tennison@epistemics.co.uk


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