getting dynamic substring xslt

Question

I am pretty new to all of developing / using XSLT but for work we have to use this now. I am busy mapping messages from application A to B and i run into something I cannot find the answer to.

as input field i have <sys_external_id>201000077_G001_S20_H10</sys_external_id>

now have i created below:

<stopNumber>
    <xsl:value-of select="substring(sys_external_id, 16, 4)" /> 
</stopNumber>

<stopHandlingNumber>
    <xsl:value-of select="substring(sys_external_id, 20, 4)" /> 
</stopHandlingNumber>

this gives me at the moment the correct answer ( S20 and H10 ) now is the "problem" that the value of S20 and H10 can differ. for example the value can be S2100 or H110. also the G001 can also differ.

A substring-after does not work because i cannot determine where my end is ( as far as I know )

Which XSLT processor will you be using?

michael.hor257k
– michael.hor257k

2020-02-14 14:24:40 +00:00
Commented Feb 14, 2020 at 14:24 — michael.hor257k
– michael.hor257k, Commented Feb 14, 2020 at 14:24

michael.hor257k · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-14 14:48:54Z

1

In XSLT 2.0 you could do:

<xsl:variable name="tokens" select="tokenize(sys_external_id, '_')" />

<stopNumber>
    <xsl:value-of select="$tokens[3]" /> 
</stopNumber>

<stopHandlingNumber>
    <xsl:value-of select="$tokens[4]" /> 
</stopHandlingNumber>

If you're limited to XSLT 1.0, then it could be:

<xsl:variable name="tail" select="substring-after(substring-after(sys_external_id, '_'), '_')" />

<stopNumber>
    <xsl:value-of select="substring-before($tail, '_')" /> 
</stopNumber>

<stopHandlingNumber>
    <xsl:value-of select="substring-after($tail, '_')" /> 
</stopHandlingNumber>

This is assuming that the input string is simply a sequence of tokens delimited by an underscore.

Note also that some XSLT 1.0 processors support the EXSLT str:tokenize() extension function.

answered Feb 14, 2020 at 14:48

michael.hor257k

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3 Comments

Alejandro Over a year ago

In XSLT 1.0 you can also use recursive template like Jeni Tennison implementation of EXSLT tokenize()

G-love Over a year ago

Hello, thank you so much for the quick respons. using the tokenize function did the trick. Just for my understanding of the working of tokenize function? Does this function check how much sections there are seperated with the "_" ? therefore my example has 4 different parts and after that I tell it to take part [3] and part [4]? again, thanks for help and quick answer.

michael.hor257k Over a year ago

@G-love Yes. For detailed explanation see: w3.org/TR/2010/REC-xpath-functions-20101214/#func-tokenize

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