Good to have a name for it, as I've had to do that a few times.

Jay Bryant
Bryant Communication Services

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dimitre Novatchev" <dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 4:02 PM
Subject: Re: [xsl] Sorting problem


A good one, David!

I think this type of sort was first used by David McNally a few years
ago. I call it "distance sorting".

Actually, I was thinking that this approach was feasible last night,
but was too tired to try to follow it.


Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev.


> Or rather you could use keys here, but in this case, i think you just want
> to sort don't you?
>
>
>  <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
> version="1.0" >
>  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
>
>
> <xsl:template match="root">
>
> <root>
> <xsl:for-each select="item">
> <xsl:sort data-type="number"
select="count(preceding-sibling::item[@type=current()/@type])"/>
> <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
> </xsl:for-each>
> </root>
> </xsl:template>
>
>
> </xsl:stylesheet>
>
>
> produces
>
> $ saxon item.xml item.xsl
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
> <root>
>   <item type="A" subType="1"/>
>   <item type="B" subType="2"/>
>   <item type="D" subType="1"/>
>   <item type="E" subType="2"/>
>   <item type="A" subType="2"/>
>   <item type="B" subType="3"/>
>   <item type="D" subType="2"/>
>   <item type="E" subType="4"/>
>   <item type="A" subType="4"/>
>   <item type="D" subType="3"/>
>   <item type="D" subType="4"/>
> </root>
>
> which appears to be what you wanted.
>
> David
>
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-- 
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Harry did not ask how Dumbledore knew; ...but Harry had long since
learned that bangs and smoke were more often the marks of ineptitude
than expertise.