Question

How can I determine whether a given node is present in my input xml?

If the node is present I would like to use the value of reportAuthor1, but otherwise I would use the value of reportAuthor. I have tried unsuccessfully to use if and else.

 <xsl:choose>
 <xsl:when test="reportAuthor1=''">
 <xsl:value-of select="reportAuthor"/>
 </xsl:when>
 <xsl:otherwise>
 <xsl:value-of select="reportAuthor1"/>
 </xsl:otherwise>
 </xsl:choose>

Answer 1

Use not() to check whether a node doesn’t exist at all:

<xsl:choose>  
  <xsl:when test="not(reportAuthor1)">  
    <xsl:value-of select="reportAuthor"/>
  </xsl:when>  
  <xsl:otherwise>  
    <xsl:value-of select="reportAuthor1"/>  
  </xsl:otherwise>  
</xsl:choose>