RE: [xsl] How to find parent's-parent's-sibling-sibling name

["Michael Kay" <michael dot h dot kay at ntlworld dot com>]

> You could use variable:
> <xsl:variable name="FOO">
>    <xsl:value-of select="BehaviourInfo/Trap/Name"/>
> </xsl:variable>
> 

An xsl:variable that contains a single xsl:value-of is almost always bad
coding. Use

<xsl:variable name="FOO" select="string(BehaviourInfo/Trap/Name)"/>

Apart from the fact that it's one line of code instead of three, it also
defines the variable as a string rather than as a tree. The only useful
thing you can do with this kind of tree in practice is to convert it to
a string, so it's much simpler and more efficient to create it as a
string in the first place.

I thought it worth mentioning because I'm seeing more and more examples
of this bad coding style.

Of course,

<xsl:variable name="FOO">
   <xsl:copy-of select="BehaviourInfo/Trap/Name"/>
</xsl:variable>

is even worse, and also very common.

Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael.H.Kay@ntlworld.com
work: Michael.Kay@softwareag.com 


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