The spaces that you get in your output are not being copied from the input,
they are being generated by virtue of the rule that a single space is
inserted between adjacent atomic values delivered in the result of a content
constructor. This space isn't inserted between a string and a node, only
between two strings.
(The reason for this rule is primarily for the case where you are generating
list-valued simple content, e.g. ("red", "blue", "green"). It's less
satisfactory when generating complex content. It means that you need to
understand the rather subtle distinction between a string and a text node:
<xsl:value-of select="'a'"/> outputs a text node, while <xsl:sequence
select="'a'"/> outputs a string. <xsl:copy-of/> produces whatever it is
given, which in this case is a string. Text nodes are output without
generating separator spaces.)
I think that if you output a text node containing a single space either side
of the <a> element, you will get the required effect. You can do this with
<xsl:text> </xsl:text>
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Nicholas Hemley
[mailto:Nicholas(_dot_)Hemley(_at_)lhb(_dot_)scot(_dot_)nhs(_dot_)uk]
Sent: 21 January 2005 09:50
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Subject: [xsl] Mistake in tokenizing under Saxon 8.2
Hello,
I presume that I have made a mistake somewhere in the stylesheet when
using the tokenize function under Saxon 8.2 - for some reason I am
loosing the whitespace chars around the matched regular expression.
For example, the following pattern:
text text [link,alt,link_text] text
should be transformed to:
text text <a href="link" alt="alt">link text</a> text
BUT
I am loosing the whitespasce characters around the <a> as follows:
text text<a href="link" alt="alt">link text</a>text
^
^
Why is this please? All the other whitespace chars are copied OK, even
though I am tokenising on whitespace.
If I use a in the stylesheet to compensate for the
loss, it adds
two spaces, not one, which is wierd, so this is not currently a viable
solution.
Any input appreciated!
Many thanks,
Nic.
Appendix: Stylesheet Snippet
<xsl:template match="/html/body/P|p">
<!-- copy node plus select contents -->
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:variable name="tokens" select="tokenize(.,'\s+')"/>
<xsl:for-each select="$tokens">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test='matches(.,"\[(.*),(.*),(.*)\]")'>
<xsl:variable name="elValue" select="."/>
<xsl:analyze-string select="$elValue"
regex="\[(.*),(.*),(.*)\]">
<xsl:matching-substring>
<a href="{regex-group(1)}">
<xsl:attribute name='alt'>
<xsl:value-of
select='replace(regex-group(3), "_"," ")'/>
</xsl:attribute>
<xsl:value-of
select='replace(regex-group(2), "_"," ")'/>
</a>
</xsl:matching-substring>
</xsl:analyze-string>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
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