XSLT 1.0: Sorting by concating portions of date string

Question

I\'m trying to take XML data and sort elements by their data attribute. Unfortunately the dates come over in mm/dd/yyyy format and are not static lengths. (Jan = 1 instead of

Answer 1

Here is one way to do this sorting using a 2-pass transformation (it is possible to do this in a one-pass transformation, but the code would be too-complicated):

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:ext="http://exslt.org/common">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
 <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

    <xsl:template match="node()|@*">
      <xsl:copy>
         <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/>
      </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="/">
      <xsl:variable name="vrtfPass1">
        <xsl:apply-templates/>
      </xsl:variable>
      <xsl:apply-templates mode="pass2" select=
       "ext:node-set($vrtfPass1)/*"/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="@startdate">
     <xsl:variable name="vDate" select="substring-before(.,' ')"/>

     <xsl:variable name="vYear" select=
       "substring($vDate, string-length($vDate) -3)"/>
     <xsl:variable name="vDayMonth" select=
      "substring-before($vDate, concat('/',$vYear))"/>

      <xsl:variable name="vMonth"
        select="format-number(substring-before($vDayMonth, '/'), '00')"/>
      <xsl:variable name="vDay"
        select="format-number(substring-after($vDayMonth, '/'), '00')"/>

    <xsl:attribute name="startdate">
      <xsl:value-of select="concat($vYear,$vMonth,$vDay)"/>
    </xsl:attribute>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="node()|@*" mode="pass2">
      <xsl:copy>
         <xsl:apply-templates mode="pass2" select="node()|@*"/>
      </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template mode="pass2" match="collection">
      <xsl:copy>
       <xsl:apply-templates mode="pass2" select="@*"/>
       <xsl:apply-templates mode="pass2">
        <xsl:sort select="@startdate"/>
       </xsl:apply-templates>
      </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

when this transformation is applied on the provided XML document:

<content date="1/13/2011 1:21:00 PM">
    <collection vo="promotion">
        <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64526" code="101P031" startdate="1/7/2011 12:00:00 AM"/>
        <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64646" code="101P026" startdate="2/19/2011 12:00:00 AM"/>
        <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64636" code="101P046" startdate="1/9/2011 12:00:00 AM"/>
    </collection>
</content>

the wanted, correct result is produced:

<content date="1/13/2011 1:21:00 PM">
   <collection vo="promotion">
      <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64526" code="101P031" startdate="20110107"/>
      <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64636" code="101P046" startdate="20110109"/>
      <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64646" code="101P026" startdate="20110219"/>
   </collection>
</content>

Do note:

1. Multipass transformations in XSLT 1.0 require the use of the vendor-specific xxx:node-set() function to convert the result of a pass from its RTF (Result Transformation Fragment) type to a regular tree (document).

2. The xxx:node-set() function used in this solution is the ext:node-set() function of EXSLT, which is implemented on most XSLT processors.

Answer 2

You can use multiple xsl:sort instructions like in this stylesheet:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:template match="node()|@*">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="collection">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@*"/>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="data">
            <xsl:sort select="substring-after(
                                 substring-after(
                                    substring-before(
                                       @startdate,
                                       ' '),
                                    '/'),
                                 '/')" data-type="number"/>
            <xsl:sort select="substring-before(
                                 @startdate,
                                 '/')" data-type="number"/>
            <xsl:sort select="substring-before(
                                 substring-after(
                                    @startdate,
                                    '/'),
                                 '/')" data-type="number"/>
            </xsl:apply-templates>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

<content date="1/13/2011 1:21:00 PM">
    <collection vo="promotion">
        <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64526" code="101P031"
              startdate="1/7/2011 12:00:00 AM"></data>
        <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64636" code="101P046"
              startdate="1/9/2011 12:00:00 AM"></data>
        <data vo="promotion" promotionid="64646" code="101P026"
              startdate="2/19/2011 12:00:00 AM"></data>
    </collection>
</content>

Update from comments

What I'm trying to do is in that stylesheet perform the sort as you've done and then export out the promotionid of the item with startdate '2/19/2011' in this case. I assumed it would be something like <xsl:value-of select="data[last()]/@promotionid"/> but I either am using it in the wrong place or have the statement wrong

Update 3: Now with new selecting data conditions

Use the "standard" maximum idiom. This stylesheet:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:template match="collection">
        <xsl:variable name="vData" select="data[@type='base']"/>
        <xsl:for-each select="data[not($vData)]|$vData">
            <xsl:sort select="substring-after(
                                     substring-after(
                                        substring-before(
                                           @startdate,
                                           ' '),
                                        '/'),
                                     '/')" data-type="number"/>
            <xsl:sort select="substring-before(
                                     @startdate,
                                     '/')" data-type="number"/>
            <xsl:sort select="substring-before(
                                     substring-after(
                                        @startdate,
                                        '/'),
                                     '/')" data-type="number"/>
            <xsl:if test="position()=last()">
                <xsl:value-of select="@promotionid"/>
            </xsl:if>
        </xsl:for-each>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

64636