Hey,

This is one of these problems that simply doesnt make sense for me.
Look at this SIMPLE sample package below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<package debug="true">
<PackageTransform>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:aspdnsf="http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com">
<xsl:output method="html" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="1=1">
<xsl:variable name="myvar">Hello world!</xsl:variable>
<xsl:value-of select="$myvar"/>
</xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
</PackageTransform>
</package>

Notice that within the choose tag I set a variable called "myvar" and then print it imediately. Running this script it will show "Hello world!" in the screen.

Ok, if I move this line to after the </xsl:choose> tag (see the modified script below) I got a "The variable or parameter 'myvar' is either not defined or it is out of scope." error.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<package debug="true">
<PackageTransform>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:aspdnsf="http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com">
<xsl:output method="html" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="1=1">
<xsl:variable name="myvar">Hello world!</xsl:variable>
</xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>
<xsl:value-of select="$myvar"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
</PackageTransform>
</package>

It doesnt make sense for me. Any clues?

Thanks!

I believe you are getting this error because the variable is defined when test="1=1", if that is not met, than $myvar is not assigned a value.

In this respect XSLT is exactly like other block structured languages, you would get the same error in C or Java if you did

if (2=2) {
  int x = 3;
}
print(x);

The answer is to use

<xsl:variable name="x">
  <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="2=2">
      <xsl:value-of select="3"/>
    </xsl:when>
  </xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>

or in 2.0

<xsl:variable name="x" select="if (2=2) then 3 else 0"/>

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference