How I can repeat an action X times with XSLT
I. XSLT 1.0 solution:
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<xsl:apply-templates select="*" mode="iter">
<xsl:with-param name="pCount" select="20"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="/*" mode="iter">
<xsl:param name="pCount" select="0"/>
<xsl:if test="$pCount > 0">
<select name="values[]">
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</select>
<xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="iter">
<xsl:with-param name="pCount" select="$pCount -1"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="select">
<option value="{id}"><xsl:value-of select="name"/></option>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
This is a specific, recursive solution.
When applied to the following XML document:
<output>
<select>
<id>0</id>
<name> </name>
</select>
<select>
<id>1</id>
<name>One</name>
</select>
<select>
<id>2</id>
<name>Two</name>
</select>
<select>
<id>3</id>
<name>Three</name>
</select>
</output>
the wanted, correct result is produced.
II. XSLT 2.0 solution using the f:repeat() function of FXSL:
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:f="http://fxsl.sf.net/"
exclude-result-prefixes="f xs"
>
<xsl:import href="../f/func-repeat.xsl"/>
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:variable name="vSelects" as="element()">
<select name="values[]">
<xsl:apply-templates select="/*/select"/>
</select>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<xsl:sequence select="f:repeat($vSelects, 20)"/>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="select">
<option value="{id}"><xsl:value-of select="name"/></option>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Here we use a very generic function that will repeat its first argument N (the value of its second argument) times.
The function f:repeat() itself is very simple:
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:f="http://fxsl.sf.net/"
exclude-result-prefixes="xs f"
>
<xsl:function name="f:repeat" as="item()+">
<xsl:param name="pThis" as="item()"/>
<xsl:param name="pTimes" as="xs:integer"/>
<xsl:for-each select="1 to $pTimes">
<xsl:sequence select="$pThis"/>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:function>
</xsl:stylesheet>
First, use templates instead of for-each, then you can use a recursive template call to emulate a for loop (as seen here):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<xsl:call-template name="selects">
<xsl:with-param name="i">1</xsl:with-param>
<xsl:with-param name="count">20</xsl:with-param>
</xsl:call-template>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="selects">
<xsl:param name="i" />
<xsl:param name="count" />
<xsl:if test="$i <= $count">
<select name="values[]">
<xsl:apply-template select="output/select" />
</select>
</xsl:if>
<!--begin_: RepeatTheLoopUntilFinished-->
<xsl:if test="$i <= $count">
<xsl:call-template name="selects">
<xsl:with-param name="i">
<xsl:value-of select="$i + 1"/>
</xsl:with-param>
<xsl:with-param name="count">
<xsl:value-of select="$count"/>
</xsl:with-param>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="output/select">
<option>
<xsl:attribute name="value">
<xsl:value-of select="id">
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of select="name" />
</option>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>