Question

I have the following xml and I need to sort this xml using XSLT based on the value of 
the "CONTENT_LENGTH" KEY ie. based on the attributes in the element <DOC_DETAIL     
KEY="CONTENT_LENGTH" VALUE="14"/>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DOC_LISTS>
<DOC_LIST>
<DOC_URL>testurl4</DOC_URL>
<DOC_DETAILS>
<DOC_DETAIL KEY="TITLE" VALUE="Red Dragon"/>
<DOC_DETAIL KEY="LANGUAGE" VALUE="english"/>
<DOC_DETAIL KEY="CONTENT_LENGTH" VALUE="14"/>
</DOC_DETAILS>
</DOC_LIST>
<DOC_LIST>
<DOC_URL>testurl2</DOC_URL>
<DOC_DETAILS>
<DOC_DETAIL KEY="TITLE" VALUE="Hannibal Rising"/>
<DOC_DETAIL KEY="LANGUAGE" VALUE="english"/>
<DOC_DETAIL KEY="CONTENT_LENGTH" VALUE="7"/>
</DOC_DETAILS>
</DOC_LIST>
</DOC_LISTS>

What will be the sort select statement in <xsl:sort select=""/>?

Answer 1

You will want DOC_DETAILS/DOC_DETAIL[@KEY='CONTENT_LENGTH']/@VALUE

Full simple example using Identity template

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"     xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

<xsl:template match="//DOC_LISTS">
  <xsl:for-each select="DOC_LIST">
    <xsl:sort select="DOC_DETAILS/DOC_DETAIL[@KEY='CONTENT_LENGTH']/@VALUE" data-type="number"/>
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="@* | node()">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>