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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-08T00:34:54+00:00

I have such XML <?xml version=1.0 encoding=utf-8?> <?xml-stylesheet type=text/xsl href=do.xsl?> <catalog> <cd> <title_>Empire Burlesque</title_>

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I have such XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="do.xsl"?>
<catalog>
  <cd>
    <title_>Empire Burlesque</title_>
    <artist>Bobby</artist>
    <company>Columbia</company>
  </cd>
  <cd>
    <title_>Shirt2</title_>
    <artist>Bobby</artist>
    <company>Columbia2</company>
  </cd>
  <cd>
    <title_>Fingers</title_>
    <artist>Bobby</artist>
    <company>Columbia3</company>
  </cd>
  <cd>
    <title_>Zip1</title_>
    <artist>Bobby</artist>
    <company>---</company>
  </cd>
  <cd>
    <title_>Zip2</title_>
    <artist>Bobby</artist>
    <company>---</company>
  </cd>
</catalog>

I need to replace — with previous meaningful data – Columbia3
I do next

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:output method="html" version="4.0" encoding="utf-8" indent="yes"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
  <body>
  <h2>My CD Collection</h2>
  <table border="1">
    <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
      <th>Title</th>
      <th>Artist</th>
    </tr>
    <xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
    <tr>
      <td><xsl:value-of select="title_"/></td>
      <td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
      <td>
          <xsl:variable name="NotStarted" select="preceding-sibling::cd[1]/company" />
          <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test="company != '---'">
              <xsl:value-of select="company"/>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:otherwise>
              <xsl:copy-of select="$NotStarted" />
            </xsl:otherwise>
          </xsl:choose>
      </td>
    </tr>
    </xsl:for-each>
  </table>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

As expected i got next html

Title   Artist
Empire Burlesque    Bobby   Columbia
Shirt2  Bobby   Columbia2
Fingers Bobby   Columbia3
Zip1    Bobby   Columbia3
Zip2    Bobby   ---

How i can iterate back to get last meaningful string to replace with or any other way? Thanks.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This is can be achieved by changing your NotStarted variable

    <xsl:variable name="NotStarted" select="preceding-sibling::cd[1]/company" />

    What this is currently doing is finding the immediately preceding sibling, regardless of content, and the getting its company element. What you need to do is find the first preceding sibling which has a valid company name

    <xsl:variable name="NotStarted" 
   select="preceding-sibling::cd[company != '---'][1]/company/text()"/>

    It is worth noting, it is usually preferable to avoid the use of xsl:for-each and xsl:choose in XSLT, and try to utilitise the power of template matching. Here is an alternate XSLT which demonstrates this

    <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
   <xsl:output method="html" version="4.0" encoding="utf-8" indent="yes"/>

   <xsl:template match="/">
      <html>
         <body>
            <h2>My CD Collection</h2>
            <table border="1">
               <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
                  <th>Title</th>
                  <th>Artist</th>
               </tr>
               <xsl:apply-templates select="catalog/cd"/>
            </table>
         </body>
      </html>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="cd">
      <tr>
         <td>
            <xsl:value-of select="title_"/>
         </td>
         <td>
            <xsl:value-of select="artist"/>
         </td>
         <td>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="company"/>
         </td>
      </tr>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="company[text() = '---']">
      <xsl:value-of select="../preceding-sibling::cd[company != '---'][1]/company"/>
   </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

    When applied to your XML sample, the following is output

    <html>
   <body>
      <h2>My CD Collection</h2>
      <table border="1">
         <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
            <th>Title</th>
            <th>Artist</th>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>Empire Burlesque</td>
            <td>Bobby</td>
            <td>Columbia</td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>Shirt2</td>
            <td>Bobby</td>
            <td>Columbia2</td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>Fingers</td>
            <td>Bobby</td>
            <td>Columbia3</td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>Zip1</td>
            <td>Bobby</td>
            <td>Columbia3</td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td>Zip2</td>
            <td>Bobby</td>
            <td>Columbia3</td>
         </tr>
      </table>
   </body>
</html>
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