[xsl] format-number using variable format string

["Nick James" <nicholasjames2@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My problem is that I want to format some numbers in an xml file in a
fixed way, yet one which I can change relatively easily if need be. If
we have the file problem.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<numbers>
   <number>22222.444444</number>
   <number>2.5555555</number>
   <number>999999.444444</number>
   <number>22222.444444</number>
</numbers>
and the file problem.xsl:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; 
version="1.0">
   <xsl:output method="text" />
   <xsl:template match="number">
       <xsl:variable name="numberFormat" select="&#108;.000" />
       <xsl:value-of select='format-number(text(), $numberFormat)' />
   </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

the output is
$ xsltproc problem.xsl problem.xml

   22222
   3
   999999
   22222

when I would have expected to see 3 dps on the numbers.

I keep on having this sort of problem with xsl(t?) - there are a hundred and 
one good uses for it, but I end up getting completely bogged down.


Any answers?

NickJ

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