Thanks, but I figured it out.

In case people are interested...what I meant was this: 

In my example I have 12 items (both make and model nodes) and so three columns should be 4 each. I don' t want to break up a make node though so the actually output groups them into columns of 5, 4 and 3. Having 4 items in each column would cause the "accord" to in a different column then the rest of the hondas. Same with the tundra/toyotas. Is that more clear?


The solution I came up with is the following snippit. I am new to XML and XSLT so if anyone sees any potential problems or knows a better way (maybe without iterating through all the cars three times...) with this please let me know. It seems to work well though for me.


-Jesse

<xsl:variable name="total" select="count(./make) + count(./make/model)"/>
        <div style="float: left; width:33%;">
          <ul>
            <xsl:for-each select="./make">

              <xsl:if test="count(preceding-sibling::*)+count(preceding-sibling::*/model) &lt; ($total div 3)">
                <li class="make">
                  <xsl:value-of select="@name" />

                </li>
                <xsl:for-each select="./model">
                  <li class="model">
                    <xsl:value-of select="." />

                  </li>
                </xsl:for-each>
              </xsl:if>
            </xsl:for-each>
          </ul>
        </div>
        <div style="float: left; width:33%;">

          <ul>
            <xsl:for-each select="./make">
              <xsl:if test="(count(preceding-sibling::*)+count(preceding-sibling::*/model) > ($total div 3)) and (count(preceding-sibling::*)+count(preceding-sibling::*/model) &lt; ($total div 3)*2)">

                <li class="make">
                  <xsl:value-of select="@name" />
                </li>
                <xsl:for-each select="./model">

                  <li class="model">
                    <xsl:value-of select="." />
                  </li>
                </xsl:for-each>
              </xsl:if>

            </xsl:for-each>
          </ul>
        </div>
        <div style="float: left; width:33%;">
          <ul>
            <xsl:for-each select="./make">

              <xsl:if test="count(preceding-sibling::*)+count(preceding-sibling::*/model) > ($total div 3)*2">
                <li class="make">
                  <xsl:value-of select="@name" />

                </li>
                <xsl:for-each select="./model">
                  <li class="model">
                    <xsl:value-of select="." />

                  </li>
                </xsl:for-each>
              </xsl:if>
            </xsl:for-each>
          </ul>
        </div>



On 4/5/07, Nathan Young -X (natyoung - Artizen at Cisco) <natyoung@c...> wrote:
Hi.

When you say "Ideally it wouldn't break the makes up" what does that
mean?  I had to code a template where it would break a listing on
headers when the headers were within 5 list items of the midpoint, but

if the header was further than that from the midpoint then it would
break at the midpoint and add a continuation header to the top of the
second column.

I actually ended up doing the logic to find the break point in several

steps before starting the output run, then spitting out the column break
using d-o-e when I encountered the break point, although I know that
idea will make XSL idealists shudder.

I think in order to give a good answer one would need to know more about

your column breaking rules.

------------>Nathan

> I have an XML file with make and model car data (example at
> the end). It has an unknown number of makes and an unknown
> number of models per make. I want to use an XSLT doc to

> format it into 3 even columns. Ideally it wouldn't break the
> makes up but it counts both makes and models in the total
> count. See the desired output below.
>
> I am new to XML and have gotten the output to work except

> this part. I can get the count but I don't know how to break
> the data up evenly. Any ideas? Is it possible?
>
> <data>
>
> <make name="ford">
>
> <model>mustang</model>

>
> </make>
> <make name="honda">
>
> <model>civic</model>
> <model>accord</model>
>
> </make>
>
> <make name="toyota">

>
> <model>corolla</model>
> <model>rav4</model>
> <model>tundra</model>
>
> </make>
> <make name="hummer">
>
> <model>h1</model>

> <model>h2</model>
>
> </make>
> </data>
>
> ----------> to ----------->
>
> <div style="float: left">
> <ul>

> <li class="make">ford</li>
> <li class="model">mustang</li>
> <li class="make">honda</li>
> <li class="model">civic</li>

> <li class="model">accord</li>
> </ul>
> </div>
> <div style="float: left">
> <ul>
> <li class="make">toyota</li>

> <li class="model">corolla</li>
> <li class="model">rav4</li>
> <li class="model">tundra</li>
> </ul>
> </div>

> <div style="float: left">
> <ul>
> <li class="make">hummer</li>
> <li class="model">h1</li>
> <li class="model">h2</li>

> </ul>
> </div>
>
> --
> ____________________________
> jessem@c...
> B.S. Computer Science
> University of California Santa Barbara

>


-- 
____________________________
jessem@c...
B.S. Computer Science
University of California Santa Barbara