XPath equivalent to XSL contains() function

Hi Stephane,

XSL contains() function take a list of strings as first argument, then compares it to a string in the 2nd argument.

XPath only accepts one string as first & 2nd argument :(

Do you have any idea how I could implement the following :

<p:choose ... >
    <p:when test="contains('hello orbeon help me', 'help')>

Maybe you could concat() the different strings in a first step to get a single string, and then apply the contains() function. I'm not sure whether the XSL contains() function returns different results depending on which string matched the pattern; if it doesn't, there should be no difference between matching against multiple strings or against a concatenation of those strings (i think).

HTH
florian

Hi Stephane,

I thought about it but I can see how it will help me. Here is the input :

allData:

<root>
    [...]
    <apps>budget news wps</apps>
    [...]


<p:choose href="#allData">
     <p:when test="not(contains(/root/apps, tokenize(/root/request/request-path, '/')[last()]))">

For me, /root/apps is already one string, no ? And if not, how can I concat this ????

sorry, i misunderstood your question. concatenation doesn't make sense in this context, you're right. But then i'm not sure what's exactly the problem. If i take your example from your first message:

contains('hello orbeon help me', 'help')

and paste this into the XPath Sandbox, i get the correct result 'true'. If the pattern should be more complex then a single string, you could use matches(text, pattern). An example for the XPath sandbox:

//employee[matches(@firstname, 'John|Bruce')]

gives the two employees with the firstname John or Bruce. That's something that can't be achieved with contains, i think.

florian

Hi Stephane,

actually, my input is the following :

<root>
    <apps>
       <app>budget</app>
       <app>news</app>
       [...]
    </apps>
[...]

In XSL, this will work : contains(/root/apps/apps,

                                              ^^^^^

i think it's a problem with your XPath. The element or nodeset /root/apps/apps doesn't exist, it must be /root/apps. The following works in the XPath Sandbox

Input:

<root>
    <apps>
       <app>budget</app>
       <app>news</app>
       <app>bork</app>
    </apps>
    <request>
      <request-path>foo/bla/news</request-path>
    </request>
</root>

XPath:

contains(/root/apps,  tokenize(/root/request/request-path, '/')[last()])

Output: 'true'

florian