XSLT - remove whitespace from template

Question

I am using XML to store a small contact list and trying to write a XSL template that will transform it into a CSV file. The problem I am having is with whitespace in the out

Answer 1

Modify the code which we used to format raw xml file by removing below lines will remove extra blank white spaces added in exported excel.

While formatting with indented property system is adding those extra blank white spaces.

Comment lines related to formatting xml like below line and try.

xmlWriter.Formatting = System.Xml.Formatting.Indented;

Answer 2

By default, XSLT templates have <xsl:preserve-space> set, which will keep whitespace in your output. You can add <xsl:strip-space elements="*"> to tell it to where to delete whitespace.

You may also need to include a normalize-space directive, like so:

<xsl:template match="text()"><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)"/></xsl:template> 

Here is an example for preserve/strip space from W3 Schools.

Answer 3

Add one template into your xslt

<xsl:template match="text()"/>

Answer 4

Others have already pointed out the general problem. Specific one for your stylesheet is that you forgot <xsl:text> for commas:

   <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="@TYPE">
     <xsl:value-of select="@TYPE" />,
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>Home </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
   <xsl:value-of select="STREET" />,
   <xsl:value-of select="CITY" />,
   <xsl:value-of select="STATE" />,
   <xsl:value-of select="ZIP" />,

This makes whitespace following every comma significant, and so it ends up in the output. If you wrap each comma in <xsl:text>, the problem disappears.

Also, get rid of that disable-output-escaping. It doesn't do anything here, since you're not outputting XML.

Answer 5

This answer may not direct answer to the problem. But a general way solve this issue. Create a template rule:

<xsl:template name="strip-space">
    <xsl:param name="data"/>
    <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space($data)"/>
</xsl:template>

Now call it to remove excess white-space:

<xsl:template match="my-element">
    <xsl:call-template name="strip-space">
        <xsl:with-param name="data">
            <xsl:apply-templates/>
        </xsl:with-param>
    </xsl:call-template>
</xsl:template>

For example, consider the below XML fragment:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<test>
    <my-element>
        <e1>some text</e1> <e2>some other text</e2> <e3>some other text</e3>
    </my-element>
</test>

And if someone likes to convert it to below text:

{test{my-element{e1some text} {e2some other text} {e3some other text}}}

Now comes the stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:output method="text" />

    <xsl:template match="/">
        <xsl:apply-templates mode="t1"/>
        <xsl:text>&#xa;</xsl:text>
        <xsl:apply-templates mode="t2"/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="*" mode="t1">
        <xsl:text>{</xsl:text>
        <xsl:value-of select="local-name()"/>
        <xsl:call-template name="strip-space">
            <xsl:with-param name="data">
                <xsl:apply-templates mode="t1"/>
            </xsl:with-param>
        </xsl:call-template>
        <xsl:text>}</xsl:text>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="*" mode="t2">
        <xsl:text>{</xsl:text>
        <xsl:value-of select="local-name()"/>
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
        <xsl:text>}</xsl:text>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template name="strip-space">
        <xsl:param name="data"/>
        <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space($data)"/>
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

After applying the stylesheet, it produce:

{test{my-element{e1some text} {e2some other text} {e3some other text}}}

{test

        some text some other text some other text

}

The output describes how @mode="t1" (<xsl:value-of select="."/> approach) differs from the @mode="t2" (xsl:call-template approach). Hope this helps somebody.

Answer 6

In XSLT, white-space is preserved by default, since it can very well be relevant data.

The best way to prevent unwanted white-space in the output is not to create it in the first place. Don't do:

<xsl:template match="foo">
  foo
</xsl:template>

because that's "\n··foo\n", from the processor's point of view. Rather do

<xsl:template match="foo">
  <xsl:text>foo</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

White-space in the stylesheet is ignored as long as it occurs between XML elements only. Simply put: never use "naked" text anywhere in your XSLT code, always enclose it in an element.

Also, using an unspecific:

<xsl:apply-templates />

is problematic, because the default XSLT rule for text nodes says "copy them to the output". This applies to "white-space-only" nodes as well. For instance:

<xml>
  <data> value </data>
</xml>

contains three text nodes:

1. "\n··" (right after <xml>)
2. "·value·"
3. "\n" (right before </xml>)

To avoid that #1 and #3 sneak into the output (which is the most common reason for unwanted spaces), you can override the default rule for text nodes by declaring an empty template:

<xsl:template match="text()" />

All text nodes are now muted and text output must be created explicitly:

<xsl:value-of select="data" />

To remove white-space from a value, you could use the normalize-space() XSLT function:

<xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(data)" />

But careful, since the function normalizes any white-space found in the string, e.g. "·value··1·" would become "value·1".

Additionally you can use the <xsl:strip-space> and <xsl:preserve-space> elements, though usually this is not necessary (and personally, I prefer explicit white-space handling as indicated above).