maintain the format in the output xml

Prabeen · June 4th, 2009, 06:47 PM

Hi all,
in my below xsl . I have a tag like this below

<Sample>
<xsl:value-of select="(./Date)"/>
</Sample>

sometimes the finalDate field will have null value so the output xml is coming like
<Sample/>

Eventhough it is correct my client application is expecting like this
<Sample>
</Sample>

Can you pls help to modify my xsl so that I can have output like the below
<Sample>
</Sample>

Thanks in advance

mhkay · June 4th, 2009, 06:54 PM

You'll need to do

Code:

<xsl:choose>
  <xsl:when test="Date">
     <xsl:value-of select="Date"/>
  </xsl:when>
  <xsl:otherwise>
     <xsl:text> </xsl:text>
  </xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

That's assuming XSLT 1.0. In 2.0 you can do

Code:

<xsl:value-of select="(Date, ' ')[1]"/>

Prabeen · June 4th, 2009, 07:31 PM

Thanks a lot Kay . I tried the exact code but it did not work. I modified the code a little , it is working , but pls let me know whether what I have done is correct. I have used the below code.

Code:

 
<xsl:variable name="varSample" select="string((./varSample[1]))"></xsl:variable>
                        <Sample>
                           <xsl:choose>
                              <xsl:when test="string-length($varSample) > 0">
                                 <xsl:value-of select="(./Sample[1])"></xsl:value-of>
                              </xsl:when>
                              <xsl:otherwise>
                                 <xsl:text></xsl:text>
                              </xsl:otherwise>
                           </xsl:choose>
                        </Sample>

mhkay · June 5th, 2009, 04:25 AM

You missed the space within the xsl:text element. An empty xsl:text element does nothing. I put a space there because you showed it in your desired output. I wasn't sure if you really wanted the space, or if you just wanted a start tag followed immediately by an end tag. If that's what you wanted (a start tag followed immediately by an end tag) then you can't achieve that - it's precisely equivalent to an empty tag (that is, <a></a> is exactly equivalent to <a/>), and if your receiving application accepts one and not the other, then that's a serious bug and you should fix it. The whole point about XML is the benefit of sticking to the standard, and there's no point in using XML unless your applications follow the standard, you might as well invent your own private markup language.

Prabeen · June 5th, 2009, 10:44 AM

Thanks for explaing to me Kay. The problem is with the client application and we have raised this issue with them. Thanks once again