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Re: [xsl] Signature of a function that may throw an error

2019-01-22 10:28:50
The XPath spec defines the return type of the error() function as "none", and 
the role of "none" in the type system is pretty much unspecified. As a result, 
there was always a steady stream of problems with edge cases in the W3C test 
suites in this area.

Saxon actually implements the static return type of error() as item(), which is 
intended to ensure that you won't get a static type error from this sort of 
construct.

This particular example doesn't seem to give a static error with Saxon 9.9, 
though the error message looks like it comes from Saxon. The code that produces 
this error is intended for the case where one of the branches of the 
conditional always returns an empty sequence (typically, an implicit 
xsl:otherwise).

What software version are you running?

Michael Kay
Saxonica



On 22 Jan 2019, at 14:36, Christophe Marchand cmarchand(_at_)oxiane(_dot_)com 
<xsl-list-service(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com> wrote:

Hello,

I have a function that must return a xs:string, or raise an error, if result 
value can not be computed, or is empty-sequence.

Here is function :

  <xsl:function name="conf:getConfVar" <conf:getConfVar> as="xs:string">
    <xsl:param name="conf" as="element(els-conf:conf)"/>
    <xsl:param name="varName" as="xs:string"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="
      if (exists($conf/els-conf:variable[@name=$varName]))
      then $conf/els-conf:variable[@name=$varName]/@value
      else (
        error(
          $conf:ERROR_MISSING_ENTRY <conf:ERROR_MISSING_ENTRY>,
          concat('Entry ',$varName,' is missing in environment configuration')
        )
      )
      "/>
  </xsl:function>

When a variable does not exist in $conf, I expect an error being raised, and 
expect to catch it in a xsl:try / xsl:catch.

But, in this case, I get this :

XTTE0780: Conditional expression: The condition is not satisfied, so an empty 
sequence is returned, but this is not allowed as the result of call to 
conf:getConfVar <conf:getConfVar>
in xsl:sequence/@select ....

I understand that error() function never return a value, so return value does 
not satisfies xsl:function/@as constrint. Is it correct ? 
How could I write this, as I want the return type being xs:string, and not 
xs:string?, and I want my error to be raised when entry is missing ?
Best regards,
Christophe
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