I'd have to read the spec
in particular, reading
http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#constructing-simple-content
reveals the answer.
<xsl:variable name="foo" as="item()*">
<xsl:text/>abc<xsl:sequence select="'def'"/>
</xsl:variable>
$foo is a sequence of length three.
An empty text node
a text node with string value "abc"
and a string "def"
<xsl:variable name="foo2" as="item()*">
<xsl:text/>abc<xsl:value-of select="'def'"/>
</xsl:variable>
$foo2 is a sequence of length three.
An empty text node
a text node with string value "abc"
and a text node with string value "def"
So what happens when you do
<xsl:value-of select="$foo" separator=","/>
<xsl:value-of select="$foo2" separator=","/>
Well the 6 stages in the above referenced section get applied.
stage 1 is dicarding zero length text nodes so now
$foo is
a text node with string value "abc"
and a string "def"
and $foo2 is
a text node with string value "abc"
and a text node with string value "def"
stage 2 is merging adjacent text nodes so now
$foo is
a text node with string value "abc"
and a string "def"
and $foo2 is
a text node with string value "abcdef"
stage 3 converts from nodes to atomic values so now
$foo is
a string "abc"
and a string "def"
and $foo2 is
a string "abcdef"
stage 5 is concatenating all the sequence together, inserting
the separator if one is supplied or a space if not, so now
$foo is
a string"abc,def"
and $foo2 is
a string"abcdef"
Voila....
Indeed, the key here is that text nodes get merged together at stage 2
before the atomization at stage 3 - which is why I'm still confused if I
specify xs:string+ instead of item()+:
<xsl:variable name="foo" as="xs:string+">
<xsl:text/>abc<xsl:sequence select="'def'"/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="foo2" as="xs:string+">
<xsl:text/>abc<xsl:value-of select="'def'"/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:value-of select="$foo" separator=","/>
Gives ,abc,def
<xsl:value-of select="$foo2" separator=","/>
Gives ,abc,def
I would have expected the same behaviour as specifying item()+ as
atomization occurs after the merging of the text nodes in $foo2
This suggests that by specifying xs:string Saxon is jumping the gun and
converting the text nodes (zero length text nodes as well - the leading
comma) to strings before stage 2.
cheers
andrew
--~------------------------------------------------------------------
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
To unsubscribe, go to: http://lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/
or e-mail: <mailto:xsl-list-unsubscribe(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
--~--