CODEWITHSUNDEEP
xmlxslt
user5581031
user5581031

Reputation: 27

xslt assign a path to a variable and call the variable later on

I am fairly new to XSLT and I am having trouble assigning a path to a variable.

Say i have the following example xml......

<CINEMA>
    <FILMS>
       <FILM_NAME>SomeFilmName</FILM_NAME>
       <FILM_NAME>SomeOtherFilmName</FILM_NAME>
    </FILMS>
</CINEMA>

And i declare the following variable....

<xsl:variable name="POS1" select="child::FILMS/descendant::FILM_NAME[1][. = 'SomeFilmName']"/>

If i call the variable using the following test I recieve no result as it appears it in not evaluating correctly

<xsl:template match="CINEMA">
<xsl:if test="$POS1">
.....Do some processing here if the above test evaluates to true........
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

However if i specify the actual path in the test without the call to a variable it seems to evaluate correctly.

Can anyone explain if what i want is possible please? If so, can anyone identify what is wrong when using the variable.

Thanks in advance, any help would be most appreciated.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1053

Answers (1)

Martin Honnen
Martin Honnen

Reputation: 167581

If that variable is a global one then you need to use an absolute path <xsl:variable name="POS1" select="/CINEMA/FILMS/descendant::FILM_NAME[1][. = 'SomeFilmName']"/> or one relative to the root node <xsl:variable name="POS1" select="CINEMA/FILMS/descendant::FILM_NAME[1][. = 'SomeFilmName']"/>.

Your current attempt only makes sense if the context node is the CINEMA element, as in

<xsl:template match="CINEMA">
<xsl:variable name="POS1" select="child::FILMS/descendant::FILM_NAME[1][. = 'SomeFilmName']"/>
<xsl:if test="$POS1">
.....Do some processing here if the above test evaluates to true........
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

Of course in that case it might be easier to simply put a predicate on the match pattern

<xsl:template match="CINEMA[FILMS/descendant::FILM_NAME[1][. = 'SomeFilmName']]">
.....Do some processing here if the above test evaluates to true........
</xsl:template>

Upvotes: 1

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