A problem with position() in XSL … or is it?
I had this strage problem while creating a XSL today. Looked for answers throughout the net, but couldnt find any …. Actually I guess! I dint know what my problem was, so what do I look for?
Anyway! Just in case you have this very same problem too and somehow by the power of the FORCE you managed to land on this page … you would thank me tons … And if you have accidently landed on this page for some strange fate and you happen to be a XSL developer , DO MAKE A NOTE OF THIS NOW, FOR THE FUTURE cause, If some day, you face this issue, then the FORCE might not be with you.
Problem statement:
I have this XML , where there are two nodes with multiple items in it and the items between these two nodes have a one to one correspondence. In the example below, each item in the node <array name=”PLAYURL” /> relates( corresponding position) to an item in the node <array name=”SITENAME” />
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<myplaylists>
<playlist>
<title>Best of Rest </title>
<array name="SITENAME">
<str>www.musicindiaonline.com</str>
<str>www.dhingana.com</str>
<str>www.raaga.com</str>
<str>www.smashits.com</str>
<str>www.desimusic.com</str>
<str>www.musicplug.in</str>
</array>
<array name="PLAYURL">
<str>http://www.musicindiaonline.com/123/</str>
<str>http://www.dhingana.com/play/123</str>
<str>http://www.raaga.com/123</str>
<str>http://ww.smashits.com/123</str>
<str>http://www.desimusic.com/123</str>
<str>http://www.musicplug.in/123</str>
</array>
</playlist>
</myplaylists>
Now, I have a loop , where i loop through <array name=”SITENAME”>, and I want to get the related item( at the corresponding position) in <array name=”PLAYURL”>,
What you would normaly try do is …
<xsl:for-each select="myplaylists/playlist/array[@name='SITENAME']/str">
play from : <a href="{../../array[@name='PLAY']/str[position()]}"/> <xsl:value-of select="." /></a>
</xsl:for-each>
SORRY!! THIS WONT WORK … Ah!!!! Surpised …
Now you would probably want to try , something like this …
<xsl:for-each select="myplaylists/playlist/array[@name='SITENAME']/str">
<xsl:variable name="pos"> <xsl:value-of select="position()"/></xsl:variable>
play from : <a href="{../../array[@name='PLAY']/str[$pos]}"/> <xsl:value-of select="." /></a>
</xsl:for-each>
And Again this wont work … Now you scratching your head, trying to contact everyone who you think knows some XSL and could be of any help … you try every other option … and still it wont work … Well! Thats what happened to me atleast …
DONT DESPAIR !!! TRY THIS
<xsl:for-each select="myplaylists/playlist/array[@name='SITENAME']/str">
<xsl:variable name="pos-int" select="position()" />
play from : <a href="{../../array[@name='PLAY']/str[$pos-int]}"/> <xsl:value-of select="." /></a>
</xsl:for-each>
DONT ASK ME WHY IT WORKS. Cause i dont have a right reason… if you do! Please do drop a comment. It might be pretty usefull. Also! if you have better TITLE for this post, do drop me a line 
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