.. _functx_min-non-empty-string:

===========================
functx:min-non-empty-string
=========================== 

The minimum of a sequence of strings, ignoring "empty" values

Description
~~~~~~~~~~~
The functx:min-non-empty-string function returns the minimum of the values in 
$strings, throwing out all zero-length strings. Like the functx:min-string 
function, it treats untyped values like strings. This is in contrast to the 
built-in fn:min function, which treats untyped values like numbers (and raises 
an error if they are not numbers).

The values in $strings must be untyped, or match the type xs:string.

.. list-table::
   :widths: 40 60
   :header-rows: 1

   * - **Parameters**
     - **Description**
   * - strings:string()
     - the sequence of strings to search

Examples
~~~~~~~~
.. list-table::
   :widths: 25 25 50
   :header-rows: 1

   * - **XPath**
     - **Results**
     - **Explanation**
   * - functx:min-non-empty-string( $in-xml//fName )
     - John
     - Calling the functx:min-string function would have returned a zero-length string (""). Calling the fn:min function instead would have raised an error.
.. list-table::
   :widths: 50 50
   :header-rows: 1

   * - **XPath**
     - **Results**
   * - functx:min-non-empty-string( $in-xml//fName )
     - John

See Also
~~~~~~~~

.. toctree::
   :titlesonly:
   :glob:

* :ref:`min`.
* :ref:`functx_min-string`.