Q: XPath: how to find out name of preceding siblings

[nobody]

hello!

sorry, but I have a brain block ...

given something like
a?, b?, c+
I have to treat every elem c in one way if elem b is
present, in an other if there's no elem b.

Tried
<xsl:if test="name(preceding-sibling::*[1]) != 'b'">
ok for the 1st elem c but fails with 2nd to n-th elem c; then tried <xsl:if test="name(preceding-sibling::*) != 'b'"> Ok only if no elem a is preceding elem b (as I get the name of the 1st elem of the subset).

Any hints about how to write the wanted test expression?

TIA, andreas

 

[Patrick TJ McPhee]

% given something like
% a?, b?, c+
% I have to treat every elem c in one way if elem b is
% present, in an other if there's no elem b.

How about

<xsl:if test='preceding-sibling::b'>
...

?

 

[Richard Tobin]

given something like
a?, b?, c+
I have to treat every elem c in one way if elem b is
present, in an other if there's no elem b.

<xsl:if test="name(preceding-sibling::*[1]) != 'b'">

Something like (not tested)

<xsl:if test="name(preceding-sibling::*[name!='c'][1]) != 'b'">

-- Richard

 

[Patrick TJ McPhee]

% % I have to treat every elem c in one way if elem b is % % present, in an other if there's no elem b.

Just looking at this part of the requirement, you'll need to use xsl:choose rather than xsl:if.

 

[nobody]

% given something like
% a?, b?, c+
% I have to treat every elem c in one way if elem b is
% present, in an other if there's no elem b.

How about
<xsl:if test='preceding-sibling::b'>

perfect! thanks a lot, Patrick!