Help with XPATH "position" of element

[Mark Bordner]

Hi All,

Given the following XML, I've been trying to figure out what XPATH expression will give me the "position" of a <lineitem> within the <shipto> that is its grandparent.

To give you an idea of what I'm trying to do...I'm transforming this XML into XSL-FO; which I will process with FOP to produce a PDF file. Each <shipto> element with the XML correlates to a new "section" within the target PDF document. I need to know when I've reached the last <lineitem> within a <shipto> so I can output some summary information.

The way I'm approaching this in the XSLT stylesheet is

1. Within the template for <lineitem>, I can use
"count(../..//lineitem)" to give me the total number of <lineitem>'s within this <shipto>. Then, I want to get the "position" of the current <lineitem> within the current <shipto>, which I can them compare against the total to see if this is the last <lineitem>.

I know the XPATH will be "count({something}) + 1", but I've just not had any luck determining what "{something}" should be.

Obviously, there could be (and probably is a better (or at least more elegant) solution to this; but it seems like this will work.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Regards,
Mark

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<shipment_coo>
<shipto code="1">
<invoice id="1">
<lineitem id="1"/>
<lineitem id="2"/>
<lineitem id="3"/>
<lineitem id="4"/>
</invoice>
<invoice id="2">
<lineitem id="1"/>
<lineitem id="2"/>
<lineitem id="3"/>
<lineitem id="4"/>
</invoice>
<invoice id="3">
<lineitem id="1"/>
<lineitem id="2"/>
<lineitem id="3"/>
<lineitem id="4"/>
</invoice>
</shipto>
<shipto code="2">
<invoice id="4">
<lineitem id="1"/>
<lineitem id="2"/>
<lineitem id="3"/>
<lineitem id="4"/>
</invoice>
<invoice id="5">
<lineitem id="1"/>
<lineitem id="2"/>
<lineitem id="3"/>
<lineitem id="4"/>
</invoice>
</shipto>
</shipment_coo>

 

[Dimitre Novatchev MVP XML]

Hi All,

Given the following XML, I've been trying to figure out what XPATH expression will give me the "position" of a <lineitem> within the <shipto> that is its grandparent.

To give you an idea of what I'm trying to do...I'm transforming this XML into XSL-FO; which I will process with FOP to produce a PDF file. Each <shipto> element with the XML correlates to a new "section" within the target PDF document. I need to know when I've reached the last <lineitem> within a <shipto> so I can output some summary information.

Use:

not(following-sibling::lineitem) and not(../following-sibling::invoice)

When the current node is a "lineitem" the above XPath expression will evaluate to true only when this "lineitem" element is the last "grandson" of its "grandfather".

Cheers,

Dimitre Novatchev [XML MVP],
FXSL developer, XML Insider,

http://fxsl.sourceforge.net/ -- the home of FXSL
Resume: http://fxsl.sf.net/DNovatchev/Resume/Res.html

 

[Mark Bordner]

Outstanding! I was thinking that there was a different way to look at this problem. Thank you very much for the solution and the insight.

Hi All,

Given the following XML, I've been trying to figure out what XPATH expression will give me the "position" of a <lineitem> within the <shipto> that is its grandparent.

To give you an idea of what I'm trying to do...I'm transforming this XML into XSL-FO; which I will process with FOP to produce a PDF file. Each <shipto> element with the XML correlates to a new "section" within the target PDF document. I need to know when I've reached the last <lineitem> within a <shipto> so I can output some summary information.

Use:

not(following-sibling::lineitem) and not(../following-sibling::invoice)

When the current node is a "lineitem" the above XPath expression will evaluate to true only when this "lineitem" element is the last "grandson" of its "grandfather".

Cheers,

Dimitre Novatchev [XML MVP],
FXSL developer, XML Insider,

http://fxsl.sourceforge.net/ -- the home of FXSL
Resume: http://fxsl.sf.net/DNovatchev/Resume/Res.html