[xquery-talk] XQuery quirk of the day

[G. Ken Holman]

At 2012-04-13 19:37 +0000, David Lee wrote:
> > >
> > >      empty($s) or $s eq ''
> >
> > But empty($s) doesn't return true for an empty string, it returns
> > true for an empty sequence.  If $s is defined as an empty string
> > you'll get false():
> >
>
>Correct thats why I used
>    empty($s) or $s eq ''

Ah, forgive me David, I thought I was reading the English language 
"or" separating two expressions as your choices and not the Boolean 
"or" of a single expression.  My mistake, as it is obvious now that 
you point it out.

>Or in context
>
>    if(empty($s) or $s eq '') then 'its a blank string'  else 'its not'
>
>But thanks for the tip on fn:not() !!! I gotta try that.

Yes, you'll find that it will return true for both cases of empty set 
and empty string because the argument to not() is first converted to 
its effective Boolean value.

Good luck!

. . . . . . . . . Ken


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