Rendering a node sequence as M x N table - xslt

Question

#Oded: Sorry to have been poor in my exposition... My input document has a fragment like this:
<recordset name="resId" >
<record n="0">example 1</record>
<record n="1">example 2</record>
<record n="2">example 1</record>
....
<record n="N">example 1</record>
</recordset>
containing an arbitrarily long node sequence. The attribute "n" reports the order of the node in the sequence. I need to arrange as output that sequence in a M (rows) x N (columns) table and I have some trouble doing that. I cannot call a template
<xsl:template match="recordset">
<table>
<xsl:apply-templates select="record"/>
</table>
</xsl:template>
with something like:
<xsl:template match="record">
<xsl:if test="#n mod 3 = 0">
<tr>
</xsl:if>
........
<td><xsl:value-of select"something"></td>
because code is invalid (and I should repeat it at the end of the template in some way)
and I must put some (maybe too much) trust in the presence of the numbered attribute. Someone has a hint? Thanks!

Answer 1

You must ensure that nesting is never broken. Things you want nested in the output must be nested in the XSLT.
<xsl:variable name="perRow" select="3" />
<xsl:template match="recordset">
<table>
<xsl:apply-templates
mode = "tr"
select = "record[position() mod $perRow = 1]"
/>
</table>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="record" mode="tr">
<tr>
<xsl:variable name="td" select="
. | following-sibling::record[position() < $perRow]
" />
<xsl:apply-templates mode="td" select="$td" />
<!-- fill up the last row -->
<xsl:if test="count($td) < $perRow">
<xsl:call-template name="filler">
<xsl:with-param name="rest" select="$perRow - count($td)" />
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:if>
</tr>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="record" mode="td">
<td>
<xsl:value-of select="." />
</td>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="filler">
<xsl:param name="rest" select="0" />
<xsl:if test="$rest">
<td />
<xsl:call-template name="filler">
<xsl:with-param name="rest" select="$rest - 1" />
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

Answer 2

Using xslt 2.0
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="2.0">
<xsl:output indent="yes"/>
<xsl:param name="rows">3</xsl:param>
<xsl:template match="recordset">
<table>
<xsl:for-each-group select="record" group-by="count(preceding-sibling::*) mod $rows ">
<xsl:value-of select="current-grouping-key()"/>
<tr>
<xsl:for-each select="current-group()">
<td>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</td>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each-group>
</table>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Answer 3

In XSLT 1.0, using a general n-per-row template.
With the row element name as a parameter, the n-per-row template is not tied to you input or output format.
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" />
<xsl:template match="recordset">
<table>
<xsl:call-template name="n-per-row">
<xsl:with-param name="select" select="record" />
<xsl:with-param name="row-size" select="2"/>
<xsl:with-param name="row-element" select="'tr'"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</table>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="record">
<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="n-per-row">
<xsl:param name="select" />
<xsl:param name="row-size" />
<xsl:param name="row-element" />
<xsl:param name="start">
<xsl:text>1</xsl:text>
</xsl:param>
<xsl:variable name="count" select="count($select)" />
<xsl:variable name="last-tmp" select="number($start) + number($row-size)" />
<xsl:variable name="last">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$last-tmp > $count">
<xsl:value-of select="$count"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="$last-tmp"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:element name="{$row-element}">
<xsl:apply-templates select="$select[position() <= $last]"/>
</xsl:element>
<xsl:if test="count($select) > $last">
<xsl:call-template name="n-per-row">
<xsl:with-param name="select" select="$select[position() > $last]"/>
<xsl:with-param name="row-size" select="$row-size"/>
<xsl:with-param name="row-element" select="$row-element"/>
<xsl:with-param name="start" select="$start"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>