Remove XML Empty Elements via XSLT

Question

SAP is sending Empty Elements in XML Payload (IDOC). We need to remove the Empty Elements (<E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1"></E1EDK02>) in the IDOC below from the payload. I have used an XSLT script to remove these empty elements but still I see with the below XSLT, the Empty Elements are not removed but they are converted to <E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1"/>. Can anyone help us with the XSLT code which removes Empty.

IDOC From SAP

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ORDERS05>
<IDOC BEGIN="1">
    <EDI_DC40 SEGMENT="1">
        <TABNAM>XXX</TABNAM>
        <MANDT>XXX</MANDT>
        <IDOCTYP>XXX</IDOCTYP>
    </EDI_DC40>
    <E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1">
        <QUALF>001</QUALF>
        <BELNR>TEST</BELNR>
        <DATUM>20210317</DATUM>
    </E1EDK02>
    <E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1"></E1EDK02>
    <E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1">
        <QUALF>002</QUALF>
        <BELNR>TEST</BELNR>
        <DATUM>20210317</DATUM>
    </E1EDK02>
    <E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1"></E1EDK02>
</IDOC></ORDERS05>

XSLT used

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
<xsl:output indent="yes" />
<xsl:template match="@*|node()">
    <xsl:if test=". != '' or ./@* != ''">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates  select="@*|node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:if>
</xsl:template></xsl:stylesheet>

Expected Output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ORDERS05>
<IDOC BEGIN="1">
    <EDI_DC40 SEGMENT="1">
        <TABNAM>XXX</TABNAM>
        <MANDT>XXX</MANDT>
        <IDOCTYP>XXX</IDOCTYP>
    </EDI_DC40>
    <E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1">
        <QUALF>001</QUALF>
        <BELNR>TEST</BELNR>
        <DATUM>20210317</DATUM>
    </E1EDK02>
    <E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1">
        <QUALF>002</QUALF>
        <BELNR>TEST</BELNR>
        <DATUM>20210317</DATUM>
    </E1EDK02>
</IDOC></ORDERS05>

michael.hor257k · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-22 14:50:34Z

1

Your test:

<xsl:if test=". != '' or ./@* != ''">

passes any element that has a non-empty attribute. The element you wish to remove:

<E1EDK02 SEGMENT="1"></E1EDK02>

has a SEGMENT attribute and this attribute has a value - therefore, it passes your test.

If you want to remove elements that do not have child elements or text nodes, I would suggest you do:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" 
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="*"/>

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

<!-- remove empty elements -->
<xsl:template match="*[not(node())]"/>

</xsl:stylesheet>

answered Mar 22, 2021 at 14:50

michael.hor257k

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