xml - XSLT for sequence of child nodes in FOP -

using apache fop, want collect info in pdf file. xml source has child nodes e, let's say

<node>    <a>some val</a>    <b>some other val</b>    <c>more val</c>    <d>even more val</d>    <e>a last val</e> </node> 

i don't want display of them. a,b,c shall displayed may emtpy. maximum amount of displayed values 3. so, d , e optional , must kept in order.

sadly, xml structure cannot modified.

what right xslt that? tried

<xsl:for-each select="child::*[name()='a' or name() = 'b' or name() = 'c' or name() = 'd' or name() = 'e'][string-length(.)&gt;0]">     <xsl:if test="position() &lt;= 3">         <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>     </xsl:if> </xsl:for-each> 

but doesn't bring me ordered list. :(

<xsl:sort /> should hep.

in case be:

<xsl:sort select="name()"/> 

therefore try:

    <xsl:for-each select="child::*[name()='a' or name() = 'b' or name() = 'c' or name() = 'd' or name() = 'e'][string-length(.)&gt;0]">         <xsl:sort select="name()"/>         <xsl:if test="position() &lt;= 3">             <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>         </xsl:if>     </xsl:for-each> 

update: because in real live input xml there not useful information sort may add meta information. store meta information depend on capabilities of xslt processor.

if can use node-set() extension may try this:

add variable stylesheet expected order.

xsl:variable name="myorder">         <order name="a" pos="1" />         <order name="b" pos="3" />         <order name="c" pos="2" />         <order name="d" pos="4" />         <order name="e" pos="5" />     </xsl:variable> 

make variable usable node-set by:

<xsl:variable name="order" select="exsl:node-set($myorder)" /> 

sort of variable.

<xsl:sort select="$order/order[@name= name(current())]/@pos"/>