RE: ORA-FO-ERRORS 15.1.11 fn:distinct-values

For the analogous operation xsl:for-each-group in XSLT, we made a different
decision: we decided that non-comparable items should be treated as distinct
(i.e. not equal). One reason for this was implementation experience: in an
implementation that uses hashing, it's extra effort to detect the fact that
that there are non-comparable items in the sequence, rather than simply
sorting non-comparable items into different hash buckets. A more important
reason is that it involves less surprise for the user. For example, if
@price is defined with a union type that allows decimal numbers or the
string "unknown", the user would not expect distinct-values(//@price) to
give an error just because the population includes a mixture of strings and
numbers.
 
Michael Kay
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Ashok Malhotra [mailto:ashokma@microsoft.com] 
Sent: 24 July 2003 16:24
To: Stephen Buxton; public-qt-comments@w3.org
Subject: RE: ORA-FO-ERRORS 15.1.11 fn:distinct-values 



Added error message to cover this case.  Thanks!

 

All the best, Ashok 


  _____  


From: public-qt-comments-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-qt-comments-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Buxton
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 7:29 AM
To: public-qt-comments@w3.org
Subject: ORA-FO-ERRORS 15.1.11 fn:distinct-values 

 

Functions and Operators, Section 15.1.11 fn:distinct-values
<fn:distinct-values>  says "All the values must be of a single type or ...".
Then "The type must have a total order. If this condition is not satisfied,
an error is raised" 

What will happen if all the values are not of a single type - will an error
be raised ?