XQuery - output series of HTML elements with separator - xquery

Question

In XQuery 3.1 I am constructing an HTML table. In one <td> element I'm outputting a series of <a ref="">.
So, currently this simple for:
<td>
{
for $b in collection($globalvar:URIdata)/tei:TEI/tei:text//tei:seg[#type="dep_event"
and #corresp = $a/data(#corresp)
and #xml:id != $a/data(#xml:id)]
order by $b/data(#xml:id)
return {$b/data(#xml:id)}
}
</td>
Outputs this:
<td>
MS609-0006-8
MS609-0419-5
MS609-0613-4
</td>
But I'd like it to output the list of <a href=""> separated by commas:
<td>
MS609-0006-8,
MS609-0419-5,
MS609-0613-4
</td>
EDIT: below works...but does not output the results in desired order and I cannot get order by $b/data(#xml:id) to work with it due to an "cardinality" problem (that did not pop up in the original).
let $coll := collection($globalvar:URIdata)/tei:TEI/tei:text//tei:seg[#type="dep_event"
and #corresp = $a/data(#corresp)
and #xml:id != $a/data(#xml:id)]
let $last := count($coll)
for $b at $position in $coll
return ({$b/data(#xml:id)},
if ($position ne $last) then ', ' else '')
Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Answer 1

I am not sure whether there is a common idiom in XQuery to do that but I think using
for $b in collection($globalvar:URIdata)/tei:TEI/tei:text//tei:seg[#type="dep_event"
and #corresp = $a/data(#corresp)
and #xml:id != $a/data(#xml:id)]
order by $b/data(#xml:id)
count $p
let $a := {$b/data(#xml:id)}
return
if ($p > 1)
then (',', $a)
else $a
is a possible way, much aline the old XSLT approach to have <xsl:for-each select="$nodes"><xsl:if test="position() > 1">,</xsl:if><xsl:copy-of select="."/></xsl:for-each>. Closer to that you could also try
(
for $b in collection($globalvar:URIdata)/tei:TEI/tei:text//tei:seg[#type="dep_event"
and #corresp = $a/data(#corresp)
and #xml:id != $a/data(#xml:id)]
order by $b/data(#xml:id)
return {$b/data(#xml:id)}
) ! (if (position() > 1) then (',', .) else .)
That could also be written as
(
for $b in collection($globalvar:URIdata)/tei:TEI/tei:text//tei:seg[#type="dep_event"
and #corresp = $a/data(#corresp)
and #xml:id != $a/data(#xml:id)]
order by $b/data(#xml:id)
return {$b/data(#xml:id)}
) ! (if (position() > 1) then ',' else (), .)
a bit closer to your second attempt.