tshad wrote:

>> <Report>
>>   <appraisal>
>>     <data>
>>       <form name="1007" primary="false">
>>         <section type="subject" number="0">
>>           <tag name="GR_AGE.1" flags="1" format="4096">4 Yrs.</tag>
>>         </section>
>>       </form>
>>       <form name="reffee" primary="false">
>>           <tag name="FFHD_NFIP_COMMUNITY_NUMBER.1" flags="0"
>> format="0">040040</tag>
>>       </form>
>>       <form name="1004_05" primary="true">
>>         <section type="subject" number="0">
>>           <tag name="PROP_PHYS_DEFICIENCIES_DESC.1" flags="4"
>> format="4096">None apparent </tag>
>>         </section>
>>       </form>
>>     </data>
>>   </appraisal>
>> </Report>
>>


> Just a couple of questions.
> 
> Since I know that 1007 is not a primary form (as there is only one primary 
> form), I assume I could just do:
> 
> <xsl:value-of select="(
>    ancestor::form/preceding-sibling::form[@primary = 'true'] |
>    ancestor::form/following-sibling::form[@primary = 'true']
>    )[1]/@name"/>

I have not looked in detail at your stylesheet, whether the above will 
do the same depends on the 'tag' element you apply it on.


> Does ancestor::form look only at the direct ancesters - which is why it 
> didn't find the siblings of the ancestor?

The ancerstor axis includes all ancestor nodes so for instance for the
   <tag name="GR_AGE.1" flags="1" format="4096">4 Yrs.</tag>
in the sample cited above these are a 'section' element, a 'form' 
element, a 'data' element, an 'appraisal' element, an 'Report' element, 
and the document node. ancestor::form then only the selects the 'form' 
element nodes on the axis which in that example is a single 'form' element.

> In ancestor::form/preceding-sibling::form, does it say:
> 
> Look at the ancestor named form then look at all the siblings named form 
> that came before it (and the reverse for following-sibling)?

Yes.

> What does the [1] do?  Is this in case it passes back more than one result?

It explictly selects the first of that union my sample selects.

> If there is only one result, do I need the [1]?

With xsl:value-of in XSLT 1.0 you do not need the [1], even if there are 
several elements found. I put it in because I did not know whether the 
XPath might find several 'form' elements and wanted to make it clear 
that only one should be selected for output.


-- 

	Martin Honnen --- MVP XML
	http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/