"Martin Honnen" <mahotrash@y...> wrote in message 
news:O4eIcTW$IHA.1452@T......
> 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.
>
I decided to keep it in myself to remind myself that there could be a set 
and not just one result.

That explains a lot.

Thanks,

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