Altu wrote:
> The thing that was confusing me was that why would we insert a
> predicate that starts with / or // in a specifiec location in the
> XPath query

As with any programming language: There are multiple ways to solve 
problems in XSLT. Generally, you should start by picking the one that 
most directly expresses the operation you are trying to perform, unless 
you know that there are performance reasons to do something else.

 > //a/b/*/c//d[/a/b/d][/a//b/g][/a/b//g] is equal to
 > //a[/a/b/d]/b[/a//b/g]/*/c//d[/a/b//g] is equal to
 > //a[/a/b/d][/a//b/g][/a/b//g]/b/*/c//d

Yes, but absolute paths in predicates are a rare occurrance. Most 
predicates will be local, relative tests of the specific element you're 
looking at or its immediate surroundings, not a pointer off to some 
not-obviously-related part of the document.

You've constructed a true statement, but not a particularly useful one.

-- 
() ASCII Ribbon Campaign  | Joe Kesselman
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