[xsl] Hopefully not a terribly silly question

[Morgan Goeller <morganworks at aol dot com>]

Hello all!


This is my first posting to the list, and I hope it is not a terribly 
silly question.  I normally try like the dickens not to have to ask for 
help on mailing lists, but after searching the archives and the web I 
can't seem to come up with an answer.  Please bear with me.  I am using 
a product called ODBC Socket Server, which allows UNIX machines to get 
ODBC information from Windows boxes.  The information is returned as XML 
data which looks something like this:

<result state="success">
<row>
<column name="aspect_task_id">70006</column>
<column name="aspect_task_descr">Tucson - Update CCIS_SISO_SUMMARY</column>
<column name="dep_task_descr">End of Switch Procedures - tuc</column>
<column name="dep_task_id">70290</column>
<column name="dep_task_grp">Aspect Data Loads</column>
</row>
<row>
<column>70007</column>
<column>Tucson HQ - Update CCIS_SISO_SUMMARY</column>
<column>End of Switch Procedures - tuchq</column>
<column>70390</column>
<column>Aspect Data Loads</column>
</row>
    .
    .   
    .

</result>


I need to translate this into something like:

<row aspect_task_id="...." aspect_task_descr="......" 
dep_task_descr="....." dep_task_id="....." dep_task_grp="....." />
<row aspect_task_id="...." aspect_task_descr="......" 
dep_task_descr="....." dep_task_id="....." dep_task_grp="....." />
<row aspect_task_id="...." aspect_task_descr="......" 
dep_task_descr="....." dep_task_id="....." dep_task_grp="....." />
<row aspect_task_id="...." aspect_task_descr="......" 
dep_task_descr="....." dep_task_id="....." dep_task_grp="....." />
<row aspect_task_id="...." aspect_task_descr="......" 
dep_task_descr="....." dep_task_id="....." dep_task_grp="....." />


I am trying to iterate through each of the rows, then each of the 
columns.  If I am not in the first column then I want to get a hold of 
the name attribute from the first row and apply it.  I wrote a 
stylesheet that tries to grab just those attributes that looks like:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; 
version="1.0">
    <xsl:output indent="yes"/>

    <xsl:template match="/">    
        <xsl:for-each select="/result/row">
            <xsl:for-each select="./column">
                <xsl:call-template name="print_name"/>
            </xsl:for-each>
        </xsl:for-each>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template name="print_name">
        <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test="@name">                 
                Name = <xsl:value-of select="@name"/>               
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:otherwise>             
                Name <xsl:value-of select="position()"/>=
                    <xsl:value-of select="concat('/result/row[1]/column[', position(),']/@name')"/>                             
                Value <xsl:value-of select="position()"/>=<xsl:value-of select="."/>                                
            </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Unfortunately,  I get a the literal string result of the concat() 
function, instead of the actual data value.  Is there some sort of 
eval() function that I need to use?  Am I approaching this incorrectly? 
  I know that XSL is quite a paradigm shift from traditional programming 
methods.

Morgan Goeller

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, 
and wrong."
   -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 



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