Two-column tables using XSLT

Question

Here is a fraction of the XML data I am processing

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<ScorecardSummary>
  <DivisionSummary>
    <DivisionName>
      <string> SYSTEM</string>
    </DivisionName>
    <ScorecardSummaryByDivision>
      <ScorecardSummaryByKPI>
        <Header>
          <string>Committed Time of Arrival</string>
          <string>Goal</string>
          <string>1D</string>
          <string>7D</string>
          <string>QTD</string>
          <string>YTD</string>
          <string>YTD Event Cars</string>
        </Header>
        <Data>
          <ScorecardContract>
            <TypeName>System</TypeName>
            <Goal>68</Goal>
            <GoalWarning>64.6</GoalWarning>
            <TotalCountYear>1234</TotalCountYear>
            <Value1D>79</Value1D>
            <Value7D>79.2</Value7D>
            <ValueQTD>79.1</ValueQTD>
            <ValueYTD>73.3</ValueYTD>
          </ScorecardContract>
          <ScorecardContract>
            <TypeName>AG</TypeName>
            <Goal>68</Goal>
            <GoalWarning>64.6</GoalWarning>
            <TotalCountYear>1111</TotalCountYear>
            <Value1D>80.9</Value1D>
            <Value7D>78.7</Value7D>
            <ValueQTD>78.4</ValueQTD>
            <ValueYTD>69.7</ValueYTD>
          </ScorecardContract>

This is a small part of the XSL that produces the tables:

<xsl:template match="ScorecardSummary/DivisionSummary/DivisionName">
  <h1>
    <xsl:value-of select="current()/string"/>
  </h1>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="ScorecardSummaryByDivision">
  <xsl:apply-templates select="current()/ScorecardSummaryByKPI"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="ScorecardSummaryByKPI">
  <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
    <tr>
      <xsl:choose>
        <xsl:when test="count(preceding-sibling::ScorecardSummaryByKPI) mod 6 &lt; 4">
          <td>
            <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
              <xsl:apply-templates select="Header"/>
              <xsl:apply-templates select="Data"/>
            </table>
          </td>
        </xsl:when>
        <xsl:otherwise>
          <td>
            <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5">
              <xsl:apply-templates select="Header"/>
              <xsl:apply-templates select="Data"/>
            </table>
          </td>
        </xsl:otherwise>
      </xsl:choose>
    </tr>
  </table>
</xsl:template>

The XSL produces 6 tables repeatedly like this:

1  
2  
3  
4  
5  
6  

1  
2  
3  
4  
5  
6  

But I want to order them like this:

1 4  
2 5  
3 6  

1 4  
2 5  
3 6  

and so on. I tried using this check, but it doesn't work.

count(preceding-sibling::ScorecardSummaryByKPI) mod 6 < 4

Can anyone help?

Answer 1

Explanation

Your table must have two <td> per row (if you want two columns). Your XSLT does generate only one.

Solution is to interate over one half of the list and generate two <td> per iteration.

So first I would define a size of the table. Example:

  <xsl:param name="size" select="count(catalog/cd)"/>

Then iterate over only a half of it ($size div 2). The number must be rounded if the input list can contain a non-even number of elements: ceiling($size div 2) (Rounding up to catch last element)

      <xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd[ceiling($size div 2) &gt;= position()]">

In each iteration, first render an element itself:

        <td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>

Then render an appropriate element from the second half of the table (offset is the number defined before: ceiling($size div 2) Half size of the table)

        <td><xsl:value-of select="following::cd[ceiling($size div 2)]/title"/></td>

You can wrap element rendering in a separate template to avoid code repeating.

Working example

Check this transformation example with W3C XSL TryIt (http://www.w3schools.com/xsl/tryxslt.asp?xmlfile=cdcatalog&xsltfile=cdcatalog):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:param name="size" select="count(catalog/cd)"/>
  <html>
  <body>
  <h2>My CD Collection</h2>
    <table border="1">
      <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
        <th>Title</th>
        <th>Title</th>
      </tr>
      <xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd[ceiling($size div 2) &gt;= position()]">
      <tr>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="following::cd[ceiling($size div 2)]/title"/></td>
      </tr>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </table>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

It splits CD-catalog (given in example link above) in two columns.