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This article has been viewed 405 times.

Process Individual Items in a Delimited List

Written by Gregory Scot Collins

Friday, 26 May 2006, 9:37 AM

This article has been tested to work with the following products and versions. No guarantee of compatibility, with or without modification, is offered for products or versions other than those listed.

HTML 4.01 (W3C)
XML 1.0 (W3C)
XPath 1.0 (W3C)
XSLT 1.0 (W3C)

IN THIS ARTICLE:

Having an XML node containing a delimited list, you can process each item in that list using a named template and parameters. The following code demonstrates how recursive calls to a named template will allow you to process each item in succession by picking off the first item, and then passing the remainder of the list back in to the same named template.

Create the DelimitedList.xml file

We need a simple XML file to transform that contains our delimited list and identifies the delimiter. Copy the contents of Listing 1 into a text editor, and then save the file as DelimitedList.xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="DelimitedList.xsl"?>
<Root>
    <DelimitedList delimiter=",">Braintrove,Examples,Rock!</DelimitedList>
</Root>

Listing 1. The DelimitedList.xml file.

If the delimiter will always be the same, you can hardcode it into the transform rather than identifying it in the XML, but if there is even a remote possibility that the delimiter will change from one node to another, it is best practice to specify it along with the list.

Create the DelimitedList.xsl file

Copy the contents of Listing 2 into a text editor, and then save the file as DelimitedList.xsl. Be sure to save it in the same folder as the DelimitedList.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 
<xsl:output method="html" indent="no"/>
 
<xsl:template match="/Root">
    <html><body>
        <xsl:call-template name="ProcessDelimitedListItems">
            <xsl:with-param name="DELIMITED_LIST" select="DelimitedList"/>
            <xsl:with-param name="DELIMITER" select="DelimitedList/@delimiter"/>
        </xsl:call-template>
    </body></html>
</xsl:template>
 
<xsl:template name="ProcessDelimitedListItems">
    <xsl:param name="DELIMITED_LIST"/>
    <xsl:param name="DELIMITER"/>
    <xsl:param name="COUNT" select="1"/>
    <xsl:variable name="ITEM" select="substring-before($DELIMITED_LIST, $DELIMITER)"/>
    <xsl:variable name="LIST" select="substring-after($DELIMITED_LIST, $DELIMITER)"/>
 
    <div>
        Item <xsl:value-of select="$COUNT"/>: 
        <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test="$ITEM">
                <xsl:value-of select="$ITEM"/>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:otherwise>
                <xsl:value-of select="$DELIMITED_LIST"/>
            </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
    </div>
 
    <xsl:if test="$LIST">
        <xsl:call-template name="ProcessDelimitedListItems">
            <xsl:with-param name="DELIMITED_LIST" select="$LIST"/>
            <xsl:with-param name="DELIMITER" select="$DELIMITER"/>
            <xsl:with-param name="COUNT" select="number($COUNT) + 1"/>
        </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
 
</xsl:stylesheet>

Listing 2. The DelimitedList.xsl file.

The named template takes three parameters: DELIMITED_LIST, DELIMITER, and COUNT. The first time we call the named template we do not pass in the COUNT parameter, allowing it to resort to the default value we specified with select="1".

As we reach the last item in the list, the delimiter is no longer present in DELIMITED_LIST. As a result both the ITEM and LIST variables will be blank. This is our signal that we are on the last item, which value is contained in DELIMITED_LIST—this is why we use an xsl:choose when displaying the item value.

Try It

Applying the transform to our XML results in the following output:

Item 1: Braintrove

Item 2: Examples

Item 3: Rock!

Copyright ©2006 Braintrove. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. You may, however, use the techniques, along with any associated code and files in your development. This material is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. You accept full responsibility and liability for any and all results associated with use of this material.

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		List of Figures
	Listing 1 - The DelimitedList.xml file.
	Listing 2 - The DelimitedList.xsl file.

		See Also
	Click to view Braintrove article: Create a Node-Set from a Delimited List Written by Gregory Scot Collins Saturday, 3 June 2006, 7:23 AM Products: HTML, XML, XPath and XSLT Using the Microsoft node-set() extension function and recursive calls to a named template with parameters you can create a convert a delimited list into a usable node-set. Create a Node-Set from a Delimited List

		Article Tags
	Default Values Delimited Lists HTML Named Templates Parameters Parameters Recursion substring-after() substring-before() Transforms Variables XML XPath xsl:call-template xsl:choose xsl:param xsl:variable xsl:with-param XSLT

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Copyright © 2006-2010 Braintrove. All rights reserved. Braintrove, braintrove.com, and the Braintrove logo are trademarks of Gregory Scot Collins in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.