Question

I have following XML file – with a Book Name and respective Authors. The Authors can be 1 or more in counts for the same Book –

<Authors>
 <book>
  <bName>HTML5</bName>
  <AName>John</AName>
  <AName>James</AName>
  <AName>Jack</AName>
 </book>
 <book>
  <bName>Java</bName>
  <AName>Joe</AName>  
 </book>
 <book>
  <bName>XML</bName>
  <AName>John</AName>
  <AName>James</AName>
 </book>
 ....
</Authors>

Using XSLT, how can I generate output as,

<p>
<b>HTML5</b/><br/>
John, James and Jack
</p>
<p>
<b>Java</b/><br/>
Joe
</p>
<p>
<b>XML</b/><br/>
John and James
</p>

In short, if there are more than 1 authors then separated by comma and an “and” between the last and last but one author name.

I am using XSLT 1.0. If not possible with 1.0, then can it be done with 2.0..?

Thanks in advance and have a nice day – John

Answer 1

One way to do this is to have various matching templates for the AName elements.

AName elements which must be followed by a comma must have 2 or more following AName elements:

<xsl:template match="AName[following-sibling::AName[following-sibling::AName]]">

Other AName elements which have a following AName element which are not picked up by the first match, must then need an “and” amd not a comma, after them.

<xsl:template match="AName[following-sibling::AName]">

All other AName elements with be the last in the list, and so have nothing following.

So, given the following XSLT

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
   <xsl:output method="html" indent="yes"/>

   <xsl:template match="Authors">
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="book">
      <p>
         <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
      </p>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="bName">
      <b>
         <xsl:value-of select="."/>
      </b>
      <br/>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="AName">
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="AName[following-sibling::AName]">
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>
      <xsl:text> and </xsl:text>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="AName[following-sibling::AName[following-sibling::AName]]">
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>
      <xsl:text>, </xsl:text>
   </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

When applied to the following XML

<Authors> 
 <book> 
  <bName>HTML5</bName> 
  <AName>John</AName> 
  <AName>James</AName> 
  <AName>Jack</AName> 
 </book> 
 <book> 
  <bName>Java</bName> 
  <AName>Joe</AName>   
 </book> 
 <book> 
  <bName>XML</bName> 
  <AName>John</AName> 
  <AName>James</AName> 
 </book> 
</Authors> 

The following HTML is output

<p><b>HTML5</b><br>John, James and Jack</p>
<p><b>Java</b><br>Joe</p>
<p><b>XML</b><br>John and James</p>

Do note the order of the matching templates in the XSLT is important. The most specific case has to come after the more general case.