Re: [xsl] top level xsl:param confusion

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert,

At 06:09 PM 9/30/2004, you wrote:
> Hi and thanks,
>
> I was hoping to get the benefit of a quick boolean test. Perhaps this is a 
> JAXP thing? I would think setting a parameter to an empty string:
>
> transformer.setParameter("permission", "");
>
> would equate to (if the permission param was not sent):
>
> <xsl:param name="permission" select="''"/>
> (since that is what I am passing)

Yes, but if you then test="$permission", the test will fail, because the 
empty string tests as false. (This is what David and others have tried to 
tell you.)

Setting the parameter to default to "false()" is not the same as setting it 
to have no value: it has a value, precisely, of Boolean false. When an 
empty string is coerced to a Boolean, as it always is when it is tested 
directly, it also gets a value of false.

> To me, this seems like a bug for java processors (at least Saxon and Xalan)

No, it's the way the spec outlines the built-in casting of datatypes.

If it were my project, I'd set the default to the string ".", which would 
not test as false, and which conveniently means, in most 
directory-traversal syntaxes, the current working directory.

Cheers,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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