Create an XSLT that will convert an array into unique sequential elements

Question

I am trying to create an XSLT that will convert an array into unique sequential elements. I am probably not explaining this correctly so I will show you:

Current XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DocumentRequests xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <PlanID>20151014_103605</PlanID>
            <LetterType>
                        <Fund>Yes</Fund>
                        <Adding>Yes</Adding>
                        <Bau>Yes</Bau>
            </LetterType>
            <PlanNumbers>
                        <PlanNumber>A01</PlanNumber>
                        <PlanNumber>A02</PlanNumber>
                        <PlanNumber>A03</PlanNumber>
                        <PlanNumber>A04</PlanNumber>
                        <PlanNumber>A05</PlanNumber>
                        <PlanNumber>A06</PlanNumber>
                        <PlanNumber>456</PlanNumber>
            </PlanNumbers>
</DocumentRequests>

Current XSLT

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="3.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:fn="http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions">
<xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/>
     <xsl:template match="*">
            <SourceFeedbackTransformed>            
                <PlanAdminID><xsl:value-of select="PlanAdminID" /></PlanAdminID>    
                <xsl:for-each select="LetterType">
                     <xsl:copy-of select="*" copy-namespaces="no"/>
                </xsl:for-each>
                <xsl:for-each select="PlanNumbers">
                      <xsl:copy-of select="*" copy-namespaces="no"/>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </SourceFeedbackTransformed>           
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Current output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SourceFeedbackTransformed xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:fn="http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions">
            <PlanAdminID/>
            <Fund>Yes</Fund>
            <Adding>Yes</Adding>
            <Bau>Yes</Bau>
            <PlanNumber>A01</PlanNumber>
            <PlanNumber>A02</PlanNumber>
            <PlanNumber>A03</PlanNumber>
            <PlanNumber>A04</PlanNumber>
            <PlanNumber>A05</PlanNumber>
            <PlanNumber>A06</PlanNumber>
            <PlanNumber>456</PlanNumber>
</SourceFeedbackTransformed>**

Desired Output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SourceFeedbackTransformed xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:fn="http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions">
            <PlanAdminID/>
            <Fund>Yes</Fund>
            <Adding>Yes</Adding>
            <Bau>Yes</Bau>
            <PlanNumber1>A01</PlanNumber1>
            <PlanNumber2>A02</PlanNumber2>
            <PlanNumber3>A03</PlanNumber3>
            <PlanNumber4>A04</PlanNumber4>
            <PlanNumber5>A05</PlanNumber5>
            <PlanNumber6>A06</PlanNumber6>
            <PlanNumber7>456</PlanNumber7>
</SourceFeedbackTransformed>

As you can see the Array with 7 values has been converted to 7 different elements.

Thank you for your help.

Cheers,

"Has been" or "must be"? There is nothing to change the tags in your code, so xsl:copy does what it's told to do. — Jongware
– Jongware, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:21
I understand it is doing as it is told. I want to know how to tell it to do what I want :). Which is the desired output. Each <PlanNumber> becomes <PlanNumberX> 'x' being unique to for each value. — John Minze
– John Minze, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:24
Are you sure you want to do this? Having numbered elements may make it more difficult to process the result. — michael.hor257k
– michael.hor257k, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:34
Yes, I am sure. But I do completely understand your point. Basically it is due to not having any other options and resources. We need to create a Database which will have new files added to it weekly. Some in the form like the one discussed in this thread and and another file (different data points, different XML Layout and tens of thousands of individual records) using the <PlanAdminID> to 'connect' them. Due to lack of resources/options we are doing this in MS Access. We will need to be able to run queries that will use data across both files to generate a report. This will be a stop gap — John Minze
– John Minze, Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 14:51

michael.hor257k · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-16 20:29:20Z

1

You can get the result you're after quite easily by:

XSLT 2.0

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" 
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

<xsl:template match="/DocumentRequests">
    <SourceFeedbackTransformed>            
        <PlanAdminID><xsl:value-of select="PlanID" /></PlanAdminID>    
        <xsl:copy-of select="LetterType/*" copy-namespaces="no"/>
        <xsl:for-each select="PlanNumbers/PlanNumber">
            <xsl:element name="PlanNumber{position()}">
                <xsl:value-of select="."/>
            </xsl:element>
        </xsl:for-each>
    </SourceFeedbackTransformed>           
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Note:
I have changed your:

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

to:

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

as there is no PlanAdminID element in your input. If you really want to output an empty <PlanAdminID/> element as shown in your requested output, then you could do so directly, without fetching the value of a non-existing node.

answered Oct 16, 2015 at 20:29

michael.hor257k

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1 Comment

John Minze Over a year ago

Thank you Michael. I just learned what xslt today and spent hours on this.

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