position() usage?

[pr-apes]

@pgundlach,

I have the following layout:

<Layout xmlns="urn:speedata.de:2009/publisher/en"
  xmlns:sd="urn:speedata:2009/publisher/functions/en">

  <Record element="data">
    <Output>
      <Text>
          <Paragraph>
            <Value select="row[position()>1]/cell[position()=1]"/>
          </Paragraph>
      </Text>
    </Output>
  </Record>

</Layout>

Assuming that data.xml contains the standard structure:

<data>
  <row>
    <cell>text</cell>
    <cell>other</cell>
  </row>
  <row>
    <cell>text</cell>
    <cell>other</cell>
  </row>
</data>

How could I select the first <cell> content after the first <row>?

row[position()>1]/cell[position()=1] seems not to be an option.

Many thanks for your help.

[pgundlach]

The XPath capabilities in the speedata Publisher are really limited. So I would use in this case:

    <Record element="data">
        <Output>
            <Text>
                <Paragraph>
                    <ForAll select="row">
                        <Switch>
                            <Case test="position() > 1">
                                <ForAll select="cell">
                                    <Switch>
                                        <Case test="position() = 1 ">
                                            <Value select="." />
                                        </Case>
                                    </Switch>
                                </ForAll>
                            </Case>
                        </Switch>
                    </ForAll>
                </Paragraph>
            </Text>
        </Output>
    </Record>

Eventually I will switch to xts, which has a much better XPath implementation, but this is still a long road to go.

Normally I create an XSLT transformation to transform my data into a more convenient structure.

[pr-apes]

This may be shorter (but only to avoid another <Switch>):

  <Record element="data">
    <Output>
      <Text>
          <ForAll select="row">
            <Switch>
              <Case test="position() > 1">
                <ForAll select="cell">
                  <Paragraph>
                    <Value select="if (position() = 1) then . else" />
                  </Paragraph>
                </ForAll>
              </Case>
            </Switch>
          </ForAll>
      </Text>
    </Output>
  </Record>
```

Many thanks for your reply.