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Re: For Loop in XSLT
- From: Mike Brown <mike at skew dot org>
- To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
- Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 11:59:09 -0600 (MDT)
- Subject: Re: [xsl] For Loop in XSLT
- Reply-to: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
Bagchi Ratul wrote:
> I was just wondering if there is something like the for loop we have in
> other languages. I simulated it by recursively calling a template from
> itself. But I was not sure whether it is the only/best method.
To supplement what Jeni and Michael said, the use cases where people think
they need a for loop with an arbitrary counter variable are, at least half the
time (an estimate based on FAQs on this list), not really needing one at all;
the problem can sometimes be redefined in terms of careful selection of nodes
to process, through the use of xsl:for-each or xsl:apply-templates.
The most common case is when you want to divide a data set into pages,
producing a series of tables with a maximum number of rows per table. The FAQ
offers several examples in
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect2/N4486.html (grouping) and
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect2/N7450.html (tables)
In general, only when you have a case like the one demonstrated in
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect2/N4806.html (iteration)
or when you're needing to walk through a string do you need recursion.
- Mike
____________________________________________________________________________
mike j. brown | xml/xslt: http://skew.org/xml/
denver/boulder, colorado, usa | resume: http://skew.org/~mike/resume/
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