Help sorting XML with XSL

dc24ua · Jun 15, 2006

Hello -

I need help sorting an xml file. I'd like to sort the xml based on the
value found in <colvalue> of the second <col>.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="sort.xsl"?>
<rows>
<row>
<col><colname>VIEW_ID</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[YZGOSDC63_Q002_V001_AV01]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>VIEW_SIZE</colname><colvalue><![CDATA]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>TITLE</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[Small:
Indicator]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>PARENT_RPT</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[YZGOSDC63_Q002]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>TEMPLATE_ID</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[ZGO_EART_WWW_TEMPLATE_001]]></colvalue></col>
</row>
<row>
<col><colname>VIEW_ID</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[YZGOSDC63_Q002_V002_AV01]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>VIEW_SIZE</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[A]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>TITLE</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[Small: Latest
Budget]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>PARENT_RPT</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[YZGOSDC63_Q002]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>TEMPLATE_ID</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[ZGO_EART_WWW_TEMPLATE_001]]></colvalue></col>
</row>
<row>
<col><colname>VIEW_ID</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[YZGOSDC63_Q002_V003_AV01]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>VIEW_SIZE</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[Z]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>TITLE</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[Small: Last
Year]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>PARENT_RPT</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[YZGOSDC63_Q002]]></colvalue></col>
<col><colname>TEMPLATE_ID</colname><colvalue><![CDATA[ZGO_EART_WWW_TEMPLATE_001]]></colvalue></col>
</row>
</rows>

Here's the XSL I'm using. I've had some luck with <xsl:sort> , but I
haven't gotten it to work the way I need it to.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<table border="1">
<xsl:for-each select="rows/row">
<tr>
<xsl:for-each select="col">
<td><xsl:value-of select="colvalue"/></td>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Joe Kesselman · Jun 15, 2006

I'd like to sort the xml based on the

value found in <colvalue> of the second <col>.

<xsl:for-each select="rows/row">
<xsl:sort select="col[2]/colvalue"/>
...

.... right?

BTW, in the example you showed us, those <![CDATA[]]> sections don't
seem to be doing anything but burning bytes and wasting
transmission/parse time. Do you really need them?

dc24ua · Jun 15, 2006

That did the trick. Thanks!
You are correct that the CDATA isn't needed in this example. However, I
do have some situations where the data contained in <colvalue> is
html/xml . Perhaps I should search the string on the server side and
only add CDATA when needed. Thanks pointing it out.

Cheers

Joe said:
I'd like to sort the xml based on the
value found in <colvalue> of the second <col>.

Click to expand...

<xsl:for-each select="rows/row">
<xsl:sort select="col[2]/colvalue"/>
...

... right?

BTW, in the example you showed us, those <![CDATA[]]> sections don't
seem to be doing anything but burning bytes and wasting
transmission/parse time. Do you really need them?

Joe Kesselman · Jun 15, 2006

dc24ua said:
do have some situations where the data contained in <colvalue> is
html/xml .

Simply wrapping it in <![CDATA[]]> will not always be enough in that
case. (Consider what happens when the contained XML itself contains a
CDATA section.)

If you're building the document through standard XML tools, they can
take care of escaping characters for you. If you're building it by doing
string manipulation, you're buying yourself a bunch of hassles.

Actually, the best answer is usually to make the contained XML just be
ordinary XML structure rather than trying to store its string
representation -- among other things, that way you don't have to
re-parse it if you need to look at it. Contained HTML... Well, I'd make
it XHTML and refer you to the preceeding sentence, but to each their own.

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Help sorting XML with XSL

dc24ua

Joe Kesselman

dc24ua

Joe Kesselman

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