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How to Sort XML Data by Multiple Elements Using XSLT

How to sort XML data by multiple elements using XSLT?

The example explains how to sort XML data by multiple child elements (<title> and <publisher>) of the same parent element <book>. The XSL stylesheet will display the sorted elements in a HTML table.

Create an XML document and link it to a XSL stylesheet.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="books_sorted.xsl"?>
<books>
   <book>  
	<title ISBN="0321173481" author="Michael R. Sweet">
	OpenGL Programming Guide Fourth Edition</title>		
	<publisher>Addison-Wesley</publisher>
	<year>2004</year>
   </book>
   <book>
	<title ISBN="0849371643" author="Gerald Farin">
	Curves and Surfaces for CAGD: A Practical Guide</title>
	<publisher>Academic Press</publisher>
	<year>2002</year>
   </book>
   <book>
	<title ISBN="1558606696" author="David Rogers">
	An Introduction to NURBS: With Historical Perspective</title>
	<publisher>Academic Press</publisher>
	<year>2001</year>
   </book>
   <book>
	<title ISBN="1568810849" author="Gerald Farin">
	NURBS: From Projective Geometry to Practical Use</title>
	<publisher>A K Peters</publisher>
	<year>1999</year>
   </book>
</books>

Create a XSL stylesheet.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="html" encoding="UTF-8"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<head><title>Books</title>
</head>
<body>
<table width="100%" border="1">
  <THEAD>
   <TR>
       <TD width="50%"><B>Title</B></TD>
       <TD width="50%"><B>Publisher</B></TD>
   </TR>
  </THEAD> 
  <TBODY>
   <xsl:for-each select="books/book">
    <xsl:sort select="title" />
    <xsl:sort select="publisher" />
    <TR>	  
       <TD width="50%"><xsl:value-of select="title" /></TD>
       <TD width="50%"><xsl:value-of select="publisher" /></TD>
    </TR>
   </xsl:for-each>
  </TBODY>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Adding more <xsl:sort> will sort the output by the first and then by the second specified element. Identical elements are sorted in the order they appear in the XML document.

<xsl:sort select="title" />
<xsl:sort select="publisher" />

Output:

Title                                           
An Introduction to NURBS: With Historical Perspective    
Curves and Surfaces for CAGD: A Practical Guide          
NURBS: From Projective Geometry to Practical Use          
OpenGL Programming Guide Fourth Edition

Publisher
Academic Press 
Academic Press
A K Peters
Addison-Wesley

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