XSL output method text including whitespaces in xsl

Question

I am creating some xsl to transform my xml into text (which will be csv eventually). I am using VS2008. When I use the editor to create the xsl, the transformed output is

Answer 1

The XSLT processor strips white-space text nodes in the template only between XSLT elements.

So, in

the xsl:for-each element has two white-space text child nodes: One after xsl:value-of, which is stripped; the other before the CDATA section, which is not stripped.

Bottom line: Use xsl:text elements.