Re: [xsl] I output a tab character, then the output file contains space,

In your second problem solution I would use a FLOWR statement to construct
the value rather than using for-each:

<xsl:variable name="result" as="xs:string*"
  select="for $item in $foo
              Return f:compute-value($item)"
/>
<xsl:sequence select="result"/>

And of course you could do the string-join there as well.

As far as I can tell the only reason to really need to use for-each in
XSLT 2 is to make something the current context where you then need to do
instructions that operate only on the current context (meaning you can't
just put the thing in a variable and the process that). And off the top of
my head I can't think of what that might be although I've had to do it
recently for something.

In functions I always use the result/sequence pattern simply to make it
easy to report the result before returning it should I need to debug the
function's behavior.

Cheers,

E.
----
Eliot Kimber, Owner
Contrext, LLC
http://contrext.com




On 4/8/16, 12:34 PM, "Costello, Roger L. costello(_at_)mitre(_dot_)org"
<xsl-list-service(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com> wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> Thank you very much Martin, Michael, and Eliot. Simply superb.
>
> Below I summarize the problem and the solution.
>
> -----------------------------
> Problem Statement:
> -----------------------------
>
> The below XSLT program loops over each value in a sequence and separates
> the sequence values by a tab (hex 9) character. When the output file is
> opened in a hex editor we see 3 characters separating the sequence
> values: 
>
>       space (hex 20), tab (hex 9), and space (hex 20)
>
> Problem: How can we avoid getting space characters surrounding the tab?
>
> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
>                           version="2.0">
>    
>    <xsl:output method="text" />
>    
>    <xsl:variable name="headers" select="('A', 'B')"/>
>    <xsl:variable name="field-separator"
> select="codepoints-to-string(9)"/>
>    
>    <xsl:template match="/">
>        <xsl:for-each select="$headers">
>            <xsl:sequence select="." />
>            <xsl:sequence select="$field-separator"/>
>        </xsl:for-each>
>    </xsl:template>
>    
> </xsl:stylesheet>
>
> --------------
> Solution:
> --------------
>
> The following value-of element will generate the desired output, without
> space (hex 20) characters surrounding the tab (hex A) character:
>
>      <xsl:value-of select="$headers" separator="{$field-separator}"/>
>
> Here is an alternate (equivalent) solution which uses XPath to solve the
> problem:
>
>      <xsl:sequence select="string-join($headers, $field-separator)"/>
>
> ------------------
> Problem #2:
> ------------------
>
> Unlike the above case, in this case there is not a predetermined sequence
> of values to be output. Rather, the sequence of values to be output are
> determined at run-time. We need to loop over some values, compute an
> appropriate value to output, and then follow the output value with a tab
> (hex 9). Like this:
>
> <xsl:for-each select="foo">
>       <xsl:variable name="value" select="f:compute-value(.)"/>
>       <xsl:sequence select="$value" />
>       <xsl:sequence select="$field-separator"/>
> </xsl:for-each>
>
> Problem: How can we output a tab (hex 9) without also getting the space
> (hex 20) characters surrounding the tab character?
>
> --------------
> Solution:
> --------------
>
> Replace the above loop with this value-of element:
>
>      <xsl:value-of select="f:get-sequence($foo)"
> separator="{$field-separator}"/>
>
> Create a function which returns just the sequence of values (no field
> separators):
>
> <xsl:function name="f:get-sequence" as="xs:string*">
>       <xsl:param name="foo" />
>       
>       <xsl:for-each select="foo">
>               <xsl:variable name="value" select="f:compute-value(.)"/>
>               <xsl:sequence select="$value" />
>       </xsl:for-each>
>
> </xsl:function>
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