"David Carlisle" <david-news@d...> wrote in message 
news:MnoUk.83905$s62.13489@n......
> Hoi Wong wrote:
>
>> Instead of specifying document('rpt_pat.xml') every time using absolute 
>> paths,
>
> as others have said you can't change the current node without for-each or 
> apply-templates, etc, however you could use a variable
> <xsl:variable name="rpt" select="document('rpt_pat.xml')"/>
> then you can use $rpt///parameter[@name='PatientBirthYear']
>
> In xslt2 I'd do
> <xsl:variable name="rpt" select="document('rpt_pat.xml')"/>
> <xsl:key name="rpt" match="parameter" use="@name"/>
> then
>
>
>      <xsl:template name="patientData">
>          <birthyear>
>              <xsl:value-of select="key('rpt','PatientBirthYear',$rpt)"/>
>          </birthyear>
>          <gender>
>              <xsl:value-of select="key('rpt','PatientGender',$rpt)"/>
>          </gender>
>      </xsl:template>
>
> The third argument of key doesn't exactly change the current node but it 
> changes the effective node used for determing the key lookup, which has 
> more or less the same effect here.
>
> David
>
> -- 
> http://dpcarlisle.blogspot.com

Thanks for the hint.

Unfortunately, the software that I'm using (namely MATLAB and the orphaned 
proprietary data converter from the vendor) only support XSLT 1.0.

In fact, I was using the variables trick before hitting this forum so I'll 
stick to that because it's easier to debug than switching nodes.

Cheers,
Hoi