Re: [xsl] XSLT: question re testing for possibly empty elements

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ralph,

At 05:17 AM 8/17/2004, you wrote:
> I guess what the original author really meant was to check if the element 
> is "empty or non-white" - because the data stored in anElement would be a 
> car's license number and it makes no sense to return spaces (which are 
> invisible on the print-out) when there's alternative data stored (which he 
> retrieves in the otherwise-branch).
>
> I reckon my test with normalize-space() is more accurate.

I concur. (Well it's not more accurate, but it is better.)

This is not only because of what you say, but also because the construction 
"string-length(.) > 0" is extremely common in XSLT written by 
programmers who are heedlessly applying idioms from other languages, not 
being aware that XSLT doesn't require such gyrations.

Another similar case is the use of name tests such as "local-name()='p'" 
instead of the simpler XPath "self::p". Other languages require grabbing 
names for testing the types of things; XSLT has its own ways (more elegant 
and concise IMO). Due to a wrinkle in XPath, one sometimes has to do name 
testing on attributes (which can't be checked for their type using the 
self:: axis), but other than that name testing is generally redundant and 
un-XSL-like.

Even though these work, I always correct them when I see them (if only in 
my head).

Cheers,
Wendell



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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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