Question

I want something like this:

<msxsl:script language='C#'>    ??? getNodes() { ... return ... } </msxsl:script>  <xsl:for-each select='user:getNodes()'>     ... </xsl:for-each> 

What return type should i use for getNodes() and what should i put in it’s body?

Answer 1

In principle you need to use the XPathNodeIterator to return node sets (as Samjudson says). I take it that the example you gave is a degenerated function, as you do not supply it with any parameters. However, I think it is instructive the see how you could fabricate nodes out of thin air.

<msxsl:script language='C#'>    XPathNodeIterator getNodes()     {        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();       doc.PreserveWhitespace = true;       doc.LoadXml('<root><fld>val</fld><fld>val2</fld></root>');       return doc.CreateNavigator().Select('/root/fld');    } </msxsl:script> 

However, typically you would want to do something in your function that is not possible in xslt, like filtering a node set based on some criteria. A criteria that is better implemented through code or depends om some external data structure. Another option is just that you would to simplify a wordy expression (as in the example bellow). Then you would pass some parameters to you getNodes function. For simplicity I use a XPath based filtering but it could be anything:

   <msxsl:script language='C#'>        XPathNodeIterator getNodes(XPathNodeIterator NodesToFilter, string Criteria)       {          XPathNodeIterator x = NodesToFilter.Current.Select('SOMEVERYCOMPLEXPATH['+Criteria+']');          return x;       }    </msxsl:script>    <xsl:for-each select='user:getNodes(values/val,'SomeCriteria')'>     ...   </xsl:for-each> 

Hopes this helps, Boaz