Question

I have several xml files that are formated this way:

<ROOT>
  <OBJECT>
    <identity>
        <id>123</id>
    </identity>     
    <child2 attr = "aa">32</child2>
    <child3>
        <childOfChild3 att1="aaa" att2="bbb" att3="CCC">LN</childOfChild3>
    </child3>
    <child4>
        <child5>
            <child6>3ddf</child6>
            <child7>
                <childOfChild7 att31="RR">1231</childOfChild7>
            </child7>
        </child5>
    </child4>
  </OBJECT>
  <OBJECT>
    <identity>
        <id>124</id>
    </identity>     
    <child2 attr = "bb">212</child2>
    <child3>
        <childOfChild3 att1="ee" att2="ccc" att3="EREA">OP</childOfChild3>
    </child3>
    <child4>
        <child5>
            <child6>213r</child6>
            <child7>
                <childOfChild7 att31="EE">1233</childOfChild7>
            </child7>
        </child5>
    </child4>
  </OBJECT>
</ROOT>

How can i format it this way?:

<ROOT>
    <OBJECT>    
        <id>123</id>
        <child2>32</child2> 
        <attr>aa</attr>
        <child3></child3>
        <childOfChild3>LN</childOfChild3>
        <att1>aaa</att1>
        <att2>bbb</att2>
        <att3>CCC</att3>
        <child4></child4>
        <child5></child5>
        <child6>3ddf</child6>
        <child7></child7>
        <childOfChild7>1231</childOfChild7>
        <att31>RR</att31>
    </OBJECT>
        <OBJECT>    
        <id>124</id>
        <child2>212</child2>    
        <attr>bb</attr>
        <child3></child3>
        <childOfChild3>LN</childOfChild3>
        <att1>ee</att1>
        <att2>ccc</att2>
        <att3>EREA</att3>
        <child4></child4>
        <child5></child5>
        <child6>213r</child6>
        <child7></child7>
        <childOfChild7>1233</childOfChild7>
        <att31>EE</att31>
    </OBJECT>   
</ROOT>

I know some C# so maybe a parser there? or some generic xslt?
The xml files are some data received from a client, so i can’t control the way they are sending it to me.

L.E. Basically when i am trying to test this data in excel (for example i want to make sure that the attribute of childOfChild7 corresponds to the correct identity id) i am getting a lot of blank spaces. If i am importing in access to get only the data i want out, i have to do a thousands subqueries to get them all in a nice table. Basically i just want to see for one Object all its data (one object – One row) and then just delete/hide the columns i don’t need.

Answer 1

Here is a pure XSLT 1.0 solution:

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

 <xsl:template match="OBJECT//*[not(self::identity) and text()]">
  <xsl:copy>
   <xsl:apply-templates select="text()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()[not(self::text())]"/>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="OBJECT//*[not(self::identity) and (not(text()))]">
  <xsl:copy/>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="@*"/>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="@*">
  <xsl:element name="{name()}">
   <xsl:value-of select="."/>
  </xsl:element>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="identity">
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

When this transformation is applied on the provided XML document:

<ROOT>
    <OBJECT>
        <identity>
            <id>123</id>
        </identity>
        <child2 attr = "aa">32</child2>
        <child3>
            <childOfChild3 att1="aaa" att2="bbb" att3="CCC">LN</childOfChild3>
        </child3>
        <child4>
            <child5>
                <child6>3ddf</child6>
                <child7>
                    <childOfChild7 att31="RR">1231</childOfChild7>
                </child7>
            </child5>
        </child4>
    </OBJECT>
    <OBJECT>
        <identity>
            <id>124</id>
        </identity>
        <child2 attr = "bb">212</child2>
        <child3>
            <childOfChild3 att1="ee" att2="ccc" att3="EREA">OP</childOfChild3>
        </child3>
        <child4>
            <child5>
                <child6>213r</child6>
                <child7>
                    <childOfChild7 att31="EE">1233</childOfChild7>
                </child7>
            </child5>
        </child4>
    </OBJECT>
</ROOT>

the wanted, correct result is produced:

<ROOT>
   <OBJECT>
      <id>123</id>
      <child2>32</child2>
      <attr>aa</attr>
      <child3/>
      <childOfChild3>LN</childOfChild3>
      <att1>aaa</att1>
      <att2>bbb</att2>
      <att3>CCC</att3>
      <child4/>
      <child5/>
      <child6>3ddf</child6>
      <child7/>
      <childOfChild7>1231</childOfChild7>
      <att31>RR</att31>
   </OBJECT>
   <OBJECT>
      <id>124</id>
      <child2>212</child2>
      <attr>bb</attr>
      <child3/>
      <childOfChild3>OP</childOfChild3>
      <att1>ee</att1>
      <att2>ccc</att2>
      <att3>EREA</att3>
      <child4/>
      <child5/>
      <child6>213r</child6>
      <child7/>
      <childOfChild7>1233</childOfChild7>
      <att31>EE</att31>
   </OBJECT>
</ROOT>