Help with XSL String manipulation

ramakanth_burra · August 1st, 2011, 12:54 PM

Hi,

I have two tags containing two strings for example

<ConsName>Sarah Hunter</ConsName>

and

<SampleName>Hunter</SampleName>

Based on the above two strings, I have to get the output as "Sarah" by string manipulation in XSL.

Request the members to help me in this regard

Regards,
Ramakanth

Martin Honnen · August 1st, 2011, 01:13 PM

Please tell us whether you use XSLT 2.0 or 1.0.

ramakanth_burra · August 1st, 2011, 01:44 PM

Hi Martin, I am using version 1.0

Thanks
Ramakanth

Martin Honnen · August 1st, 2011, 01:51 PM

Well XSLT/XPath 1.0 are pretty limited when it comes to string manipulation http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath/#section-String-Functions, you haven't really explained how complicated the input can get but perhpas

Code:

<xsl:template match="ConsName">
  <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(substring-before(., //SampleName))"/>
</xsl:template>

gives you an idea as to what is possible.

ramakanth_burra · August 2nd, 2011, 03:22 AM

Hi Martin,

I have tried the code that you provided. However it shows me empty string instead of the expected

As for the inputs, it is always, a combination of surname and firstname. The second string is always the surname. So I wanted to pull out the firstname using the two strings

Can you please provide any other alternative

Regards,
Ramakanth

ramakanth_burra · August 2nd, 2011, 03:31 AM

Hi Martin,

Good news..I could work out a solution and below is the code

<xsl:value-of select="(substring-before(//ConsName,' '))"/>

Thanks very much for your help

Regards,
Ramakanth

ramakanth_burra · August 2nd, 2011, 08:59 AM

Martin,

I again faced the problem when the input is more than 2 words.

For example,

If <ConsName>Sarah Lake Hunter </ConsName>, out of which Sarah Lake is the First name, then my solution will only show Sarah

Typically, the solution would be to show the string other than the present in the surname

<Surname>Hunter</Surname>

Therefore I have to compare"Sarah Lake Hunter" and "Hunter" and produce "Sarah Lake"

Please suggest any solution

Regards,
Ramakanth

Martin Honnen · August 2nd, 2011, 09:05 AM

I don't see why my first suggestion does not solve the problem as described so far.
When I use the sample input

Code:

<Root>
<ConsName>Sarah Lake Hunter </ConsName>
<Surname>Hunter</Surname>
</Root>

and the stylesheet

Code:

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">

<xsl:output method="text"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:apply-templates select="Root/ConsName"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="ConsName">
  <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(substring-before(., //Surname))"/>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

the output is "Sarah Lake".

ramakanth_burra · August 2nd, 2011, 10:05 AM

Martin, May be I would not have tested properly

Anyhow the below code

<xsl:value-of select="(substring-before(//ConsName,//SurName))" /> works fine

Many thanks for your help in giving me a head start

Regards,
Ramakanth