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Asked: 2026-05-20T20:12:46+00:00

I have the following XML from which I am trying to generate HTML files.

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I have the following XML from which I am trying to generate HTML files.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<text>
    <body>
        <milestone unit="fragment"/>
            <div>

                <p>First line text in FIRST fragment</p>
                <p>Second line <seg>text in FIRST</seg> fragment</p>
                <p>Third line text in FIRST fragment</p>

                <milestone unit="fragment"/>
                <p>First line text in SECOND fragment</p>
                <p>Second line <seg>text in SECOND </seg> fragment</p>
                <p>Third line text in SECOND fragment</p>

                <milestone unit="fragment"/>
                <p>First line text in THIRD fragment</p>
                <p>Second line <seg>text in THIRD </seg> fragment</p>
                <p>Third line text in THIRD fragment</p>

            </div>
    </body>
</text>

Expected HTML Output:

HTML 1:
<p>First line text in FIRST fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in FIRST</span>fragment</p>
<p>Third line text in FIRST fragment</p>


HTML 2:
<p>First line text in SECOND fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in SECOND </span> fragment</p>
<p>Third line text in SECOND fragment</p>

HTML 3:
<p>First line text in THIRD fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in THIRD </span> fragment</p>
<p>Third line text in THIRD fragment</p>

This is the XSLT where I am using for-each-group to group the nodes between “milestone” tags, but the grouping does not occur as expected. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" exclude-result-prefixes="xs" version="2.0">
    <xsl:output method="html" name="html" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes" omit-xml-declaration="yes" include-content-type="no"/>

    <xsl:template match="/">
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="body">
        <xsl:for-each-group select="descendant::*" group-starting-with="milestone[@unit='fragment']">

            <xsl:variable name="currFragNumber">
                    <xsl:number count="milestone[@unit='fragment']" level="any" from="text"/>
                </xsl:variable>
                                <xsl:result-document href="{$currFragNumber}.html" format="html">
                    <xsl:apply-templates select="current-group()" />
                </xsl:result-document>

        </xsl:for-each-group>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="p">
        <p>
            <xsl:apply-templates/>
        </p>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="seg">
        <span>
            <xsl:apply-templates/>
        </span>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Below is the output after of the transform.

HTML 1:
<p>First line text in FIRST fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in FIRST</span>fragment</p>
<p>Third line text in FIRST fragment</p>

<p>First line text in SECOND fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in SECOND</span>fragment</p>
<p>Third line text in SECOND fragment</p>

<p>First line text in THIRD fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in THIRD</span>fragment</p>
<p>Third line text in THIRD fragment</p>

<p>First line text in FIRST fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in FIRST</span>fragment</p>
<span>text in FIRST</span>
<p>Third line text in FIRST fragment</p>


HTML 2:
<p>First line text in SECOND fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in SECOND </span> fragment</p>
<span>text in SECOND </span>
<p>Third line text in SECOND fragment</p>

HTML 3:
<p>First line text in THIRD fragment</p>
<p>Second line <span>text in THIRD </span> fragment</p>
<span>text in THIRD </span>
<p>Third line text in THIRD fragment</p>

I am trying to understand why the first current-group()(i.e. first “milestone”) is matching the whole document rather than just the nodes between the “milestone” tags.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The problem is that you are also selecting the div, as I’ve suggested in comments.

    Use:

    <xsl:for-each-group select="div/*" 
                    group-starting-with="milestone[@unit='fragment']">

    It will correctly serialize three result documents. Do note that you could just forget the first milestone because according to http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#xsl-for-each-group

    If the group-starting-with attribute
    is present, then its value must be a
    pattern. In this case, the items in
    the population must all be nodes.

    The nodes in the population are
    examined in population order. If a
    node matches the pattern, or is the
    first node in the population    *, then a
    new group is created and the node
    becomes its first member. Otherwise,
    the node is assigned to the same group
    as its preceding node within the
    population.

    *: emphasis is mine.

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