Hey Marrow,

Not trying to accomplish any thing was just messing around and thought that 
it might be a good way to check for the last record in a group during a loop. 
Since I can't reassign variables and position() tells me where in a loop I am 
and position() can also be used to specify a node to look up it seemed (maybe 
foolishly) that this was an easy way to know if the current node and previous 
node for a given value match. I am aware of Muenchian (you may have helped me 
out with that). 

Anyway the context of that example would have been in 

<foo>
  <bar attrib='test'>
  <bar attrib='test'>
  <bar attrib='test2'>
</foo>

<xsl:for-each select="bar">
  <xsl:choose>
  <xsl:when test="/foo/bar[position()=position()-1]/@attrib">
   <xsl:value-of select="@attrib"/>
  </xsl:when>
  <xsl:otherwise>
    <xsl:value-of select="@attrib"/> end of group
  </xsl:otherwise>
  </xsl:choose>
</xsl:for-each>

Result expected

test
test end of group
test2

Clearly I didn't mess with the keys or anything for grouping but this would 
work if the xml was ordered or if using the Muenchian Technique. (that is if 
it evaluated like it does when using value-of)

As far as it evaluating to nothing thats not completely true becuase if I 
hard code in the value of the position 

<xsl:value-of select="/foo/bar[position()=3]/@attrib"/>

The the result would be 

test2

and if I do

<xsl:value-of select="position()-1"/>

I would get

0
1
2

So my general question was why would that not evaluate to the value of the 
node (which does exist) and return the value requested. Further if there is 
no way for this to work then is there another way to evaluate the same thing 
(the previous node processed in a for-each)

Thanks,

Jason



"Marrow" wrote:

> Hi Jason,
> 
> > But that this never returns a result
> >
> > <xsl:value-of select="/foo/bar[position()=position()-1]/@attrib"/>
> 
> Of course it won't ever return anything...  the predicate [] expression can
> never evalaute to true.
> 
> > What I want to do here is look at the last record in a loop to see if I am
> > at the end of a grouping (begininig of the next actually)
> 
> Based on what you have described so far (but not seeing more of the XSLT and
> XML) I'd say it'is unlikely that your current method of doing grouping will
> work.  There are a couple of ways of doing grouping in XSLT 1.0 - the
> Muenchian Technique and preceding-sibling technique.  I'm sure if you post
> an example of what your are trying to do someone will be able to show you
> how to do these.
> 
> Cheers
> Marrow
> http://www.marrowsoft.com - home of Xselerator (XSLT IDE and debugger)
> http://www.topxml.com/Xselerator
> 
> 
> "Jason Burr" <JasonBurr@d...> wrote in message
> news:3CEE074F-AD95-4124-ADD2-8DB46106D9BA@m......
> > Can someone explain why doing this writes a number one less than the
> current
> > position.
> >
> > <xsl:value-of select="position()-1"/>
> >
> > Doing this will display a specific positions value
> >
> > <xsl:value-of select="/foo/bar[position()=3]/@attrib"/>
> >
> > But that this never returns a result
> >
> > <xsl:value-of select="/foo/bar[position()=position()-1]/@attrib"/>
> >
> > What I want to do here is look at the last record in a loop to see if I am
> > at the end of a grouping (begininig of the next actually)
> >
> 
> 
>