XSL distinct values

[Bhupendra Mehta]

I have an xml of the form
<data>
<row>
<col>2003-05-04</col>
</row>
<row>
<col>2003-05-07</col>
</row>
<row>
<col>2003-05-04</col>
</row>
<row>
<col>2003-05-08</col>
</row>
<row>
<col>2004-06-08</col>
</row>
<row>
<col>2004-07-08</col>
</row>
.
.
.
</data>
The col element has dates in the form of yyyy-mm-dd. I am trying to find distinct yyyy-mm values from the above XML in a "variable". I can get distinct date values by using
<xsl:variable name="distinctdate" select="//row[not(col[1]=preceding-sibling::row/col[1])]/col[1]"></xsl:variable>
which gives me
2003-05-04
2003-05-07
2003-05-08
2004-06-08
2004-07-08

but what i'd really like is
2003-05
2004-06
2004-07
Any reponses will be greatly appreciated. Thanx

[Madhav Lakkapragada]

<xsl:variable name="distinctdate" select="//row[not(col[1]=preceding-sibling::row/col[1])]/col[1]"></xsl:variable>


Fudge this rule with the substring function:
substring(col[1], 0, 7) so that you are comparing the first seven chars
and not the value of the col element in its entirety. You will have to do some trial and error.

I am leaving the homework for you.

- m

[Bhupendra Mehta]

Madhav,
Thanx for the suggestion but i can't get the substring'd value. This is what I changed the rule to

<xsl:variable name="distinctdate" select="//row[not(substring(col[1],1,7)=substring(preceding-sibling::row/col[1],1,7))]/col[1]"></xsl:variable>

but I can't substring the final value that I'm retrieving //row[condition]/col[1]

Thanx again.

[Madhav Lakkapragada]

Will look into into and get back.....interesting problem!

- m

[Madhav Lakkapragada]

ok, I went ahead and modified one of my older style sheets for this -

Kinda lengthy. Maybe there's a better way of doing this but once I started
modifying my existing style sheet, I never looked back. So this probably is
one way to do it, may not be the best.

<xsl:template match="/data">
<Root>
 
<xsl:variable name="allColStr">
<xsl:for-each select="/data/row/col" >
<xsl:variable name="thisCol" select="substring(., 0, 8)"/>
<xsl:value-of select="concat($thisCol, '#')"/>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:variable>
 
<xsl:call-template name="printDepts">
<xsl:with-param name="allDepts" select="$allColStr"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</Root>
</xsl:template>
 
<xsl:template name="printDepts">
<xsl:param name="allDepts"/>
 
                     <xsl:variable name="thisCol">
                      <xsl:choose>
                         <xsl:when test="contains($allDepts, '#')">
                            <xsl:value-of select="substring-before($allDepts, '#')"/>
                         </xsl:when>
                         <xsl:otherwise>
                           <xsl:value-of select="$allDepts"/>
                         </xsl:otherwise>
                      </xsl:choose>
                     </xsl:variable>
 
 
      <xsl:if test="contains($allDepts, '#') and substring-after($allDepts, '#')">
<xsl:call-template name="printDepts">
<xsl:with-param name="allDepts" select="substring-after($allDepts, '#')"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:if>
 
                                <xsl:if test="not(contains(substring-after($allDepts, '#'), $thisCol)) and substring-before($allDepts, '#')">
<Dept>
<xsl:value-of select="substring-before($allDepts, '#')"/>
</Dept>
                                </xsl:if>
 
</xsl:template>
 
 
Output (based on your input file above):
 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Root>
<Dept>2004-07</Dept>
<Dept>2004-06</Dept>
<Dept>2003-05</Dept>
</Root>
 
 

Sorry about being slack with the variable names and with the indenting.

- m
[ November 01, 2004: Message edited by: Madhav Lakkapragada ]

[Bhupendra Mehta]

Madhav,
Thanx a lot that worked like a charm.