I have been reading up on the Muenchian Method, but am just not understanding

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Asked: June 5, 20262026-06-05T06:23:24+00:00 2026-06-05T06:23:24+00:00

I have been reading up on the Muenchian Method, but am just not understanding

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I have been reading up on the Muenchian Method, but am just not understanding the grouping to generate the html formatted how I need it.

Here is the source xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env>
<paramCount>4</paramCount>
<param parameter="id" value="1371"/>
<param parameter="xform" value="none"/>
<param parameter="user" value="Administrator"/>
<param parameter="time-stamp" value="Jun 5, 2012 2:29:45 PM"/>
<sql name="Matrix Demo" qid="1371">
    <row num="1">
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_TITLE" grp="0" label="X" type="12" name="X">1-Sample Topic</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_ID" grp="0" label="X_ID" type="2" name="X_ID">3838</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_TITLE" grp="0" label="Y" type="12" name="Y">DC</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_ID" grp="0" label="Y_ID" type="2" name="Y_ID">4909</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.PRIORITY" grp="0" label="Priority" type="2" name="Priority">1740</col>
    </row>
    <row num="2">
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_TITLE" grp="0" label="X" type="12" name="X">1-Sample Topic</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_ID" grp="0" label="X_ID" type="2" name="X_ID">3838</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_TITLE" grp="0" label="Y" type="12" name="Y">Maryland</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_ID" grp="0" label="Y_ID" type="2" name="Y_ID">4910</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.PRIORITY" grp="0" label="Priority" type="2" name="Priority">1740</col>
    </row>
    <row num="3">
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_TITLE" grp="0" label="X" type="12" name="X">1-Sample Topic</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_ID" grp="0" label="X_ID" type="2" name="X_ID">3838</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_TITLE" grp="0" label="Y" type="12" name="Y">Virginia</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_ID" grp="0" label="Y_ID" type="2" name="Y_ID">4908</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.PRIORITY" grp="0" label="Priority" type="2" name="Priority">1740</col>
    </row>
    <row num="4">
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_TITLE" grp="0" label="X" type="12" name="X">2-Sample Topic</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_ID" grp="0" label="X_ID" type="2" name="X_ID">4901</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_TITLE" grp="0" label="Y" type="12" name="Y">DC</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_ID" grp="0" label="Y_ID" type="2" name="Y_ID">4909</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.PRIORITY" grp="0" label="Priority" type="2" name="Priority">1741</col>
    </row>
    <row num="5">
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_TITLE" grp="0" label="X" type="12" name="X">2-Sample Topic</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_ID" grp="0" label="X_ID" type="2" name="X_ID">4901</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_TITLE" grp="0" label="Y" type="12" name="Y">Maryland</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_ID" grp="0" label="Y_ID" type="2" name="Y_ID">4910</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.PRIORITY" grp="0" label="Priority" type="2" name="Priority">1741</col>
    </row>
    <row num="6">
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_TITLE" grp="0" label="X" type="12" name="X">2-Sample Topic</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.X_ID" grp="0" label="X_ID" type="2" name="X_ID">4901</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_TITLE" grp="0" label="Y" type="12" name="Y">Virginia</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.Y_ID" grp="0" label="Y_ID" type="2" name="Y_ID">4908</col>
        <col meta="MATRIX.PRIORITY" grp="0" label="Priority" type="2" name="Priority">1741</col>
    </row>
    ...
</sql>
</env>

This is what I am trying to achieve.

<html>
<body>
<table border="1" width="500px">
<thead>
    <tr>
        <th>&#160;</th>
        <th>1-Sample Topic</th>
        <th>2-Sample Topic</th>
        <th>3-Sample Topic</th>
    </tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
    <tr>
        <td>DC</td>
        <td>1740</td>
        <td>1741</td>
        <td>1742</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Maryland</td>
        <td>1740</td>
        <td>1741</td>
        <td>1742</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Virginia</td>
        <td>1740</td>
        <td>1741</td>
        <td>1742</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</body>
</html>

I haven’t really come close to getting the output as I need it. I did get the example from http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/grouping/muenchian.html but did not get any further than that.

I can control what data comes out in the col sections, but the overall tree I cannot change. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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1 Answer

Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-06-05T06:23:25+00:00

You don’t say which of the <col> elements are the most reliable ones to group on, but I presume the ones with name="X_ID" and name="Y_ID" are appropriate.

The purpose of the Muenchian method is to quickly locate all elements with an identical characteristic. So in this case we need to group the rows by the value of their X_ID columns to find the text to go in the <th> elements of the first row, and separately by the value of their Y_ID columns to determine which rows to display in the <td> elements of subsequent lines.

This stylesheet does the grouping as you specified. The output when it is applied to the data you have given is shown beneath it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  version="1.0">

  <xsl:output method="html" indent="yes"/>
  <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

  <xsl:key name="rows_by_x_id" match="row" use="col[@name='X_ID']" />
  <xsl:key name="rows_by_y_id" match="row" use="col[@name='Y_ID']" />

  <xsl:template match="/env/sql">

    <html>
      <body>

        <table border="1" width="500px">

          <tr>
            <th>&#160;</th>
            <xsl:for-each select="row[generate-id() = generate-id(key('rows_by_x_id', col[@name='X_ID']))]">
              <th>
                <xsl:value-of select="col[@name='X']"/>
              </th>
            </xsl:for-each>
          </tr>

          <xsl:for-each select="row[generate-id() = generate-id(key('rows_by_y_id', col[@name='Y_ID']))]">
            <tr>
              <td>
                <xsl:value-of select="col[@name='Y']"/>
              </td>
              <xsl:for-each select="key('rows_by_y_id', current()/col[@name='Y_ID'])">
                <td>
                  <xsl:value-of select="col[@name='Priority']"/>
                </td>
              </xsl:for-each>
            </tr>
          </xsl:for-each>

        </table>

      </body>
    </html>

  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

output

4<html>
   <body>
      <table border="1" width="500px">
         <tr>
            <th>&nbsp;</th>
            <th>1-Sample Topic</th>
            <th>2-Sample Topic</th>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>DC</td>
            <td>1740</td>
            <td>1741</td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>Maryland</td>
            <td>1740</td>
            <td>1741</td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>Virginia</td>
            <td>1740</td>
            <td>1741</td>
         </tr>
      </table>
   </body>
</html>

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