On 8/13/07, cknell(_at_)onebox(_dot_)com <cknell(_at_)onebox(_dot_)com> wrote:
<xsl:function name="ck:excel-serial-date" as="xs:string?">
<xsl:param name="input-date" as="xs:string?"/>
<xsl:value-of select="if($input-date = '') then '' else
xs:string(xs:integer(translate(xs:string(xs:date($input-date)-xs:date('1900-01-01')),'PD','')))"/>
</xsl:function>
This is a function I wrote (am writing?) to compute an integer that
represents the a date to Excel 2000.
There may or may not be a value in the input document that corresponds to a
cell in the output. In that case, I want the function to return an empty
string.
So you can see here that I tell the function to expect a string, and that an
empty string (zero-length string) is acceptable input.
I also tell it that it should return a string, and that a zero-length string
is acceptable output.
In the body of the function, I state that if the input is a zero-length
string, it should return a zero-length string, otherwise it is to compute the
number of days between January 1, 1900 and the input date, convert the result
to a string, and return that.
Anyway, that's what I thought I was doing, but when I attempt a
transformation, I get the following error message:
"Fatal Error! Cannot convert zero-length string to an integer"
I can't recreate that but it suggests you're doing xs:integer('')
after the translate, which means somehow you're calling translate on
the string 'PD' - which processor are you using and which input causes
the error? (it doesn't look like a Saxon error message)
Either way I would separate your single function into multiple functions:
<xsl:param name="startDate" select="xs:date('1900-01-01')" as="xs:date"/>
<xsl:function name="ck:excel-serial-date" as="xs:anyAtomicType?">
<xsl:param name="input-date" as="xs:string?"/>
<xsl:sequence select="if (not($input-date)) then ''
else days-from-duration(ck:subtract-date(xs:date($input-date)))"/>
</xsl:function>
<xsl:function name="ck:subtract-date" as="xs:duration">
<xsl:param name="date" as="xs:date"/>
<xsl:sequence select="$date - $startDate"/>
</xsl:function>
Apart from all the usual benefits of separation, it enables one to be
strongly typed and less susceptible to errors.
As you're returning an atomic type use xsl:sequence instead of
xsl:value-of, otherwise you're doing the unnecessary creating a text
node and then serializing it.
Also no need for the the translate as the function days-from-duration() exists.
If the functions aren't what you need can you post a set of input
dates that cause the problem?
cheers
andrew
--
http://andrewjwelch.com
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