EXSLT - set:difference

Implementer Page: set.difference.html
Function Package: set.difference.zip

Function Syntax

node-set set:difference(node-set, node-set)

Template Syntax

<xsl:call-template name="set:difference"> <xsl:with-param name="nodes1" select="node-set" /> <xsl:with-param name="nodes2" select="node-set" /> </xsl:call-template>

The set:difference function returns the difference between two node sets - those nodes that are in the node set passed as the first argument that are not in the node set passed as the second argument.

The set:difference template applies templates to these nodes in set:difference mode. By default, the nodes are copied by this template, so that a result tree fragment consisting of the nodes is returned.

Implementations

The following XSLT processors support set:difference:

4XSLT, from 4Suite. (version 0.12.0a3)
SAXON from Michael Kay (version 6.3)
jd.xslt from Johannes Döbler (version 1.0.9)
libxslt from Daniel Veillard; implementation by Thomas Broyer (version 1.0.19)
Xalan-J from Apache (version 2.4.D1)

Implementations of set:difference are available in the following languages:

XSLT Template (by Jeni Tennison)
EXSLT Function (by Jeni Tennison)

Examples

Function

The following example shows how to use the set:difference function:

Source

<doc> <city name="Paris" country="France" /> <city name="Madrid" country="Spain" /> <city name="Vienna" country="Austria" /> <city name="Barcelona" country="Spain" /> <city name="Salzburg" country="Austria" /> <city name="Bonn" country="Germany" /> <city name="Lyon" country="France" /> <city name="Hannover" country="Germany" /> <city name="Calais" country="France" /> <city name="Berlin" country="Germany" /> </doc>

Stylesheet

<!-- Test set:intersection, difference --> <xsl:variable name="i" select="//city[contains(@name,'i')]" /> <xsl:variable name="e" select="//city[contains(@name,'e')]" /> <xsl:template match="/"> <out> Containing i and e: <xsl:for-each select="set:intersection($i, $e)"> <xsl:value-of select="@name" /> ; </xsl:for-each> Containing i and no e: <xsl:for-each select="set:difference($i, $e)"> <xsl:value-of select="@name" /> ; </xsl:for-each> Containing e and no i: <xsl:for-each select="set:difference($e, $i)"> <xsl:value-of select="@name" /> ; </xsl:for-each> <!-- test intersection and difference on empty sets --> Containing i: <xsl:for-each select="set:difference($i, /..)"> <xsl:value-of select="@name" /> ; </xsl:for-each> Empty set: <xsl:for-each select="set:intersection($i, /..)"> <xsl:value-of select="@name" /> ; </xsl:for-each> Empty set: <xsl:for-each select="set:intersection(/.., $i)"> <xsl:value-of select="@name" /> ; </xsl:for-each> Empty set: <xsl:for-each select="set:difference(/.., $i)"> <xsl:value-of select="@name" /> ; </xsl:for-each> </out> </xsl:template>

Result

<out xmlns:set="http://exslt.org/sets"> Containing i and e: Vienna; Berlin; Containing i and no e: Paris; Madrid; Calais; Containing e and no i: Barcelona; Hannover; Containing i: Paris; Madrid; Vienna; Calais; Berlin; Empty set: Empty set: Empty set: </out>