RE: [xsl] Testing 2 XML documents for equality - a solution

Subject: RE: [xsl] Testing 2 XML documents for equality - a solution
From: "Touchtel" <omprakashv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:41:14 +0530
Hi,
      The following is a link I came across on normalizing whitespace in XML
files. Maybe the 2 files need to be normalized before comparing which would
obviate the need to normalize in the comparison stylesheet .

Cheers,
Omprakash.V

http://www.oracle.com/technology/sample_code/tutorials/parser/saxnorm/toc.ht
m




-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Neff [mailto:jneff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 9:05 PM
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [xsl] Testing 2 XML documents for equality - a solution


What if the nodes are not in the same order?  From my understanding, XSLT
doesn't care (nor should it) the order of sibling nodes (nodes at the same
level).

Maybe we could do some pre-processing to massage our source documents into
some order if your going to do just one equals test.

Some other things to consider, If this were a very large document, would it
be faster to look for obvious differences first, like same number of nodes
at each level (if there weren't a lot of levels it wouldn't take much
time--depends on structure of expected documents though).  I guess we are
trying to avoid going through each and every node in one document, reading
its name and value, then comparing it with every other node in the second
document.

Great idea though.

--Jim


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mukul Gandhi [mailto:mukul_gandhi@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 10:29 AM
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [xsl] Testing 2 XML documents for equality - a solution
>
> Hello,
>   I was playing with XSLT. I thought could there be a nice
> way (with XSLT 1.0) to test 2 XML documents for equality. Two
> XML documents will be considered equal if all their nodes are
> identical(i.e. element, text, attribute, namespace etc).
>
> I found few approaches for this in the FAQ (URL -
> http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect2/N1777.html) .
> Indeed they are good work.. But I could come up with an
> elegant way. It uses no extension functions. Below is the XSLT ..
>
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <xsl:stylesheet
> xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
> version="1.0">
>
>  <xsl:output method="text" />
>
>  <!-- parameter for "ignoring white-space only text nodes"
> during comparison -->
>  <!-- if iws='y', "white-space only text nodes" will not be
> considered during comparison  -->  <xsl:param name="iws" />
>
>  <xsl:variable name="doc1"
> select="document('file1.xml')" />
>  <xsl:variable name="doc2"
> select="document('file2.xml')" />
>
>  <xsl:template match="/">
>
>     <!-- store hash of 1st document into a variable;
>     it is concatination of name and values of all nodes -->
>     <xsl:variable name="one">
>       <xsl:for-each select="$doc1//@*">
>         <xsl:value-of select="name()" /><xsl:value-of select="." />
>       </xsl:for-each>
>       <xsl:choose>
>         <xsl:when test="$iws='y'">
>           <xsl:for-each
> select="$doc1//node()[not(normalize-space(self::text())
> = '')]">
>             <xsl:value-of select="name()"
> /><xsl:value-of select="." />
>           </xsl:for-each>
>         </xsl:when>
>         <xsl:otherwise>
>           <xsl:for-each select="$doc1//node()">
> 	    <xsl:value-of select="name()" /><xsl:value-of select="." />
>           </xsl:for-each>
>         </xsl:otherwise>
>       </xsl:choose>
>     </xsl:variable>
>
>     <!-- store hash of 2nd document into a variable;
>     it is concatination of name and values of all nodes -->
>     <xsl:variable name="two">
>       <xsl:for-each select="$doc2//@*">
>         <xsl:value-of select="name()" /><xsl:value-of select="." />
>       </xsl:for-each>
>       <xsl:choose>
>          <xsl:when test="$iws='y'">
>            <xsl:for-each
> select="$doc2//node()[not(normalize-space(self::text())
> = '')]">
>              <xsl:value-of select="name()"
> /><xsl:value-of select="." />
>            </xsl:for-each>
>          </xsl:when>
>          <xsl:otherwise>
>            <xsl:for-each select="$doc2//node()">
>       	     <xsl:value-of select="name()"
> /><xsl:value-of select="." />
>            </xsl:for-each>
>          </xsl:otherwise>
>       </xsl:choose>
>     </xsl:variable>
>     <xsl:choose>
>       <xsl:when test="$one = $two">
>         Equal
>       </xsl:when>
>       <xsl:otherwise>
>         Not equal
>       </xsl:otherwise>
>     </xsl:choose>
>  </xsl:template>
>
> </xsl:stylesheet>
>
> In this stylesheet, I am relying on 2 features -
> node() function and @* . node() function matches any node
> other than an attribute node and the root node.
> While @* matches any attribute. So I guess this XSLT can
> cater to all cases ;) . I have done limited testing with
> "element, text and attribute nodes only"
> and have got favourable results..
>
> Another feature that I have incorporated in the stylesheet
> is, "controlling whether white space only text nodes should
> be considered during comparison".
> This is done with a stylesheet parameter iws. If it is "y",
> white space only text nodes will be ignored during
> comparison. If it is other than "y" or is not supplied, white
> space only text nodes will make a difference to the 2 documents.
>
> If anybody cares to test this stylesheet and report any
> observations, I'll be happy!
>
> Regards,
> Mukul
>
>
>
>
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