Re: [xsl] Coding aroung a "Cannot convert zero-length string to an integer" error

["Andrew Welch" <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/13/07, Angela Williams <Angela.Williams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Andrew Welch
> >So basically always type your parameters - if you're expecting a string
> that can be empty then you want:
> ><xsl:param name="foo" as="xs:string?"/>
> >...and then using test="not($foo)" should be fine.
>
> In the function below, I've typed my $xpath, but still the empty string
> was passed to saxon:evaluate and generated the 'Expected node but
> received EOF' message from Saxon.  When I changed it to check for
> string-length, I received my custom error message.
>
> Did I miss something?
>
>
>   <xsl:function name="fk:eval">
>     <xsl:param name="context" as="node()+"/>
>     <xsl:param name="xpath" as="xs:string" />
>     <xsl:param name="msg" as="xs:string" />
>
>    <xsl:choose>
>       <!-- <xsl:when test="not($xpath)"> -->
>       <xsl:when test="string-length(normalize-space($xpath)) eq 0">
>         <xsl:text> Custom error message. </xsl:text>
>       </xsl:when>
>       <!-- More code removed -->
>       <xsl:otherwise>
>         <xsl:sequence select="$context/sax:evaluate($xpath)" />
>       </xsl:otherwise>
>     </xsl:choose>
>   </xsl:function>

It's almost certainly the value you are passing for the $xpath
parameter is not the empty string '' but ' ' or longer - basically a
string of white space (most likely from getting the string value of a
node in the input and getting white space text nodes)

It's a shame that xs:string('') is allowed (as in '' is considered a
valid xs:string).  In nearly all the XML Schemas I write I have to
define my own xs:non-empty-string type and use that wherever I
would've used xs:string.  I'm sure there must be a good reason for it,
but it does cause extra hassle.

Anyway, in your case I think you will after all that have to do something like:

not($xpath) or string-length(normalize-space($xpath)) eq 0

or maybe:

not($xpath) or matches($xpath, '\s')


cheers
andrew
-- 
http://andrewjwelch.com