Question

I am trying to use XSL to transform an XML file and can’t figure out how to rename an element as either the name or value of one of its attributes. I have found plenty of examples of converting attributes to elements and the other way around but I keep ending up with elements that are nested which I don’t want. Here is an example:

Original XML:

<row_item column="Hostname">HOST-A</row_item>
<row_item column="IP Address">10.10.10.10</row_item>

What I would like to output:

<column>HOST-A</column>

Or (preferred):

<hostname>HOST-A</hostname>

Answer 1

This transformation:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
 <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

 <xsl:template match="row_item[1]">
     <xsl:element name="{@column}">
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>
     </xsl:element>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="text()"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>

when applied on this XML document:

<rows>
    <row_item column="Hostname">HOST-A</row_item>
    <row_item column="IP Address">10.10.10.10</row_item>
</rows>

produces the wanted, correct result:

<Hostname>HOST-A</Hostname>

Explanation:

Appropriate use of xsl:element and AVT.