2

I have

<xsl:for-each select="//article[articletype/@id=15 and position() =1]">

which pulls back nothing. I then change it to

<xsl:for-each select="//article[articletype/@id=15]">
<p><xsl:value-of select="position()"/></p>

which pulls back

1 2 3 4

Any reason why this is happening? I've even tried number(position()). It only works if I use a large numbers and not the position I'm expecting 

<xsl:for-each select="//article[articletype/@id=15 and position() &lt; 100]">
pee2pee
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    This seems to be a duplicate. Consider of having a look @Dimitre answer [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5818681/xpath-how-to-select-node-with-some-attribute-by-index). – Emiliano Poggi Jun 18 '11 at 12:50

3 Answers3

5

This question reduces to: what does //article[1] mean? The answer is that it means 

/descendant-or-self::node()/child::article[1]

which selects the first "article" child of every node in the document. This is different from (//article)[1], which selects the first article in the document.

So the expression you want is 

<xsl:for-each select="(//article[articletype/@id=15])[1]">
Michael Kay
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0

With the first XPath you listed: //article[articletype/@id=15 and position() =1], you are asking for the first article element at every axis (in document order) that must have an articletype/@id=15.

For each axis, if the first article element does not have an articletype element with @id=15, then nothing matches.

With the second XPath: //article[articletype/@id=15] you are asking for all of the article elements that have an articletype child that has @id=15. Apparently, there are 4 of them in your document.

You should use the following XPath:

(//article[articletype/@id=15])[1]

Dr. Michael Kay's answer better explains why it behaves this way. Also refer to this answer from Dimitri Novatchev

Community
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Mads Hansen
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  • The suggested expression is correct but the explanation is not: in particular the sentence "you are asking for the first article element (in document order) that must have an articletype/@id=15." is wrong. – Michael Kay Jun 20 '11 at 08:10
-1

I think you want the following xpath expression:

<xsl:for-each select="//article[articletype/@id=15][1]">
Pierre
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