Re: [xsl] how to know distance between two sibling nodes

["Andrew Welch" <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/14/07, alex v. <alex.vett@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I would like to know distance between two sibling nodes.
> One solution maybe is to count siblings between the two nodes.
> So, I have a sequence of sibling node, for example:
>
> <a>
> <b>
> <c>
> <a>
> <b>
> <c>
> <c>
>
> and when I match element <c> I need to know the number of
> preceding-sibling only until the first previous element <a>,
> also it is:
>
> <a>
> <b>
> <c> = 2
> <a>
> <c> = 1
> <c> = 2
>
> where digit is the distance from the first prevoius <a>.

Your examples don't match!  It makes it easier to reply if you provide
well-formed XML

> I think that count(preceding-sibling::a[1]) is the solution, but it
> seems don't work for me. Why this?

It's on the right track, try this:

select="count(.|preceding-sibling::*[. >> current()/preceding-sibling::a[1]])"

In words, this says: "Count all preceding-siblings that occurs after
the closest preceding-sibling <a> in document order" - the . includes
the current element itself to increase the count by one to get the
number you're after.

cheers
andrew