Hi,

Wow, and you want that in one XPath expression?  Assuming the current
context node (or text node thereof) is the sentence and that $break is the
desired position (e.g. 300) something like...

concat(substring(.,1,$break),
           substring-before(substring(.,$break+1,string-length(.) *
not(substring(.,$break,1) = '.') ),'.'),
           substring(.,$break+1,string-length(.) *
not(contains(substring(.,$break+1),'.'))),
           substring('.',1,1 * (not(substring(.,$break,1) = '.') or
not(contains(.,'.')))))


Heh, it ain't pretty but it works (i think???)! ;)

Some test code...

XML
<root>
  <!-- 
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
7890123456 -->
  <sentence>dshjsd sjhhjds sdjsj sj. sdjhh sjsjd sjjhsdh. sjsjhd sjjshhd
sjhdsjh sjhjd.</sentence>
  <sentence>kds skj swiuui weiuuiew ewiuiew ewiuwieuiiuwe weiiuewui
ewiiuewiu weiiuewi</sentence>
  <sentence>weoio ksjdkj skdskjjk woewoi weoiew weiooiew ew. wepoopew
ewpopoew weoppoewo</sentence>
  <sentence>kjdkjds sdkjweiu iwuew wiewiu. oweio ewowpwe wiiwue woiwie.
wppwepoew wiuwei.</sentence>
</root>

XSL
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="text"/>
<xsl:variable name="break" select="30"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
  <!-- list original and spliced strings... -->
  <xsl:text>       123456789012345678901234567890&#10;</xsl:text>
  <xsl:for-each select="root/sentence">
    <xsl:text>old:- "</xsl:text>
    <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    <xsl:text>"&#10;new:- "</xsl:text>
    <xsl:value-of select="concat(substring(.,1,$break),

substring-before(substring(.,$break+1,string-length(.) *
not(substring(.,$break,1) = '.') ),'.'),
                                 substring(.,$break+1,string-length(.) *
not(contains(substring(.,$break+1),'.'))),
                                 substring('.',1,1 *
(not(substring(.,$break,1) = '.') or not(contains(.,'.')))))"/>
    <xsl:text>"&#10;&#10;</xsl:text>
  </xsl:for-each>
  <xsl:text>&#10;&#10;</xsl:text>
  <!-- find the maximum length of those... -->
  <xsl:variable name="max-length">
    <xsl:for-each select="root/sentence">
      <xsl:sort select="string-length(concat(substring(.,1,$break),

substring-before(substring(.,$break+1,string-length(.) *
not(substring(.,$break,1) = '.') ),'.'),
                                      substring(.,$break+1,string-length(.)
* not(contains(substring(.,$break+1),'.'))),
                                      substring('.',1,1 *
(not(substring(.,$break,1) = '.') or not(contains(.,'.'))))))"
data-type="number" order="descending"/>
      <xsl:if test="position() = 1">
        <xsl:value-of select="string-length(concat(substring(.,1,$break),

substring-before(substring(.,$break+1,string-length(.) *
not(substring(.,$break,1) = '.') ),'.'),

substring(.,$break+1,string-length(.) *
not(contains(substring(.,$break+1),'.'))),
                                            substring('.',1,1 *
(not(substring(.,$break,1) = '.') or not(contains(.,'.'))))))"/>
      </xsl:if>
    </xsl:for-each>
  </xsl:variable>
  <xsl:text>The longest string is </xsl:text>
  <xsl:value-of select="$max-length"/>
  <xsl:text> chars long</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>


Cheers
Marrow
http://www.marrowsoft.com - home of Xselerator (XSLT IDE and debugger)
http://www.topxml.com/Xselerator



"js" <anonymous@d...> wrote in message
news:e1ldXqTwEHA.4048@T......
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to use XPath to extract substring of a text node.  The
> substring should be at least 300 characters long. If the 300th character
> is in the middle of a sentence, the substring should include the
> complete sentence which the 300th character resides.  I use XPath
> function substring($outputContent,1,$displayLength).  What function or
> XPath syntax will allow me to find the period of the ending sentence so
> that I can dynamically adjust the $displayLength variable?  Thanks.
>
>
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