DO NOT REPLY [Bug 14897] New: - Pattern of form "//A/B" selects B even if A is its grandparent

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http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=14897

Pattern of form "//A/B" selects B even if A is its grandparent

           Summary: Pattern of form "//A/B" selects B even if A is its
                    grandparent
           Product: XalanJ2
           Version: 2.4
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Windows NT/2K
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Normal
          Priority: Other
         Component: org.apache.xpath
        AssignedTo: xalan-dev@xml.apache.org
        ReportedBy: marco.roduit@tinext.com


As far as I understand from the XPATH specification (and other 
documentation), the pattern "//A/B" should mean: 
"select all B elements that have an A element as their parent"

The following XML document

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <content>
    <container>
      <list>
        <list-entry>
          This is a list entry
        </list-entry>
      </list>
    </container>
  </content>
</root>

with the following style sheet applied

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output indent="yes" />

<xsl:template name="root">
  Root
  <xsl:apply-templates />
</xsl:template>
  
<xsl:template match="content">
  Root - Content
  <xsl:apply-templates />
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="//content/container">
  Root - Content - Container
  <xsl:apply-templates />
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="//content/list">
  Root - Content - List (WRONG)
  <xsl:apply-templates />
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="list-entry">
  <xsl:apply-templates />
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

produces the following output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  Root - Content
  Root - Content - Container
  Root - Content - List (WRONG)
          This is a list entry

As you note, there's no list element child of a content element;
the list element is actually the child of the container element.
If you change the template definitions in

<xsl:template match="/root/content/container">
...
<xsl:template match="/root/content/list">
...

everything works fine.