XPATH to copy node value from preceding element - xslt

Question

I was hoping to get help on the XPATH I'm trying to create.
I have the following file structure in XML:
<Request>
<RequestArea>
<SourceText>**Text 1**</SourceText>
</RequestArea>
<ResponseArea>
<TargetText></TargetText>
</ResponseArea>
</Request>
<Request>
<RequestArea>
<SourceText>**Text 2**</SourceText>
</RequestArea>
<ResponseArea>
<TargetText></TargetText>
</ResponseArea>
</Request>
I need to copy value of SourceText node and paste it into following TargetText node.
So, the resulting XML file would be this:
<Request>
<RequestArea>
<SourceText>**Text 1**</SourceText>
</RequestArea>
<ResponseArea>
<TargetText>**Text 1**</TargetText>
</ResponseArea>
</Request>
<Request>
<RequestArea>
<SourceText>**Text 2**</SourceText>
</RequestArea>
<ResponseArea>
<TargetText>**Text 2**</TargetText>
</ResponseArea>
</Request>
I have the following XSL:
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/>
<!-- identity transform -->
<xsl:template match="#*|node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="#*|node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="TargetText">
<ResponseText>
<xsl:value-of select="preceding::SourceText"/>
</ResponseText>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
But the XSL engine (MSXSL) copies Text 1 value into both subsequent TargetText nodes instead of using each following SourceText value as a source for the content that gets copied:
<Request>
<RequestArea>
<SourceText>**Text 1**</SourceText>
</RequestArea>
<ResponseArea>
<TargetText>**Text 1**</TargetText>
</ResponseArea>
</Request>
<Request>
<RequestArea>
<SourceText>**Text 2**</SourceText>
</RequestArea>
<ResponseArea>
<TargetText>**Text 1**</TargetText>
</ResponseArea>
</Request>
Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong?
Thank you!

Answer 1

Just replace the second template in your XSLT with
<xsl:template match="ResponseArea/TargetText">
<ResponseText>
<xsl:value-of select="../../RequestArea/SourceText"/>
</ResponseText>
</xsl:template>
If you need the element to be named TargetText like in your desired example output instead of ResponseText, just change it.
The output of the above code is:
<Request>
<RequestArea>
<SourceText>**Text 1**</SourceText>
</RequestArea>
<ResponseArea>
<ResponseText>**Text 1**</ResponseText>
</ResponseArea>
</Request>
<Request>
<RequestArea>
<SourceText>**Text 2**</SourceText>
</RequestArea>
<ResponseArea>
<ResponseText>**Text 2**</ResponseText>
</ResponseArea>
</Request>