Question

I have such xml:

<A1>   <B1>     <C1>     <C2>     <C3>   </B1>   <B2>     <C4>     <C5>     <C6>   </B2> </A1> <A2>   <B3>     <C7>     <C8>     <C9>   </B3>   <B4>     <C10>     <C11>     <C12>   </B4> </A2> 

I need to transform it to table with nested rows:

<table border='yes'> <tr>   <td>A1</td>   <td>B1</td>   <td>C1</td> </tr> <tr>   <td></td>   <td></td>   <td>C2</td> </tr> <tr>  <td></td>  <td></td>  <td>C3</td> </tr> <tr>  <td></td>  <td>B2</td>  <td>C3</td> </tr> <tr>  <td></td>  <td></td>  <td>C4</td> </tr> 

A and B appear only if they are new (not repeating in every row);

I’m trying to use position()

<xsl:template match='c'>  <tr>   <td>    <xsl:if test='IT IS THE FIRST C IN A'>      <xsl:value-of select='ancestor::A'/>    </xsl:if>   </td>   <td>    <xsl:if test='position(1)'>    <xsl:value-of select='parent'/>    </xsl:if>   </td>   <td>     <xsl:value-of select='.'/>   </td>  </tr> </xsl:template> 

It seems that we should emulate position() for ancestor. Is there a general solution for any number of nested rows?

Answer 1

You perhaps need something like the following (if I understood your question correctly):

<xsl:template match='C'>  <tr>   <td>    <xsl:if test='generate-id(ancestor::A/descendant::C[1]) = generate-id(.)'>      <xsl:value-of select='ancestor::A'/>    </xsl:if>   </td>   <td>    <xsl:if test='not(previous-sibling::C)'>      <xsl:value-of select='..'/>    </xsl:if>   </td>   <td>     <xsl:value-of select='.'/>   </td>  </tr> </xsl:template>  <xsl:template match='/'>   <xsl:apply-templates select='descendant::C'/> </xsl:template> 

Edit: you may also use

not(previous-sibling::C) and not(../previous-sibling::B) 

as the first test (instead of using generate-id()).