<xsl:variable name="string" select="'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'" />
I would need to convert this string to a node, grouped by 5 characters, obviously the last group can be less than or equal to 5 characters depending on the input string
<node>
<a>abcde</a>
<a>fghij</a>
<a>klmno</a>
<a>pqrst</a>
<a>uvwxy</a>
<a>z</a>
</node>
This transformation:
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:param name="pStr" select="'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'" />
<xsl:param name="pChunkSize" select="5"/>
<xsl:template match="/*">
<node>
<xsl:call-template name="split"/>
</node>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="split">
<xsl:param name="pStr" select="$pStr" />
<xsl:param name="pChunkSize" select="$pChunkSize"/>
<xsl:variable name="pRemLength" select="string-length($pStr)"/>
<xsl:if test="$pRemLength">
<a><xsl:value-of select="substring($pStr, 1, $pChunkSize)"/></a>
<xsl:call-template name="split">
<xsl:with-param name="pStr" select="substring($pStr, $pChunkSize+1)"/>
<xsl:with-param name="pChunkSize" select="$pChunkSize"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
when applied on any XML document (not used), produces the wanted, correct result:
<node>
<a>abcde</a>
<a>fghij</a>
<a>klmno</a>
<a>pqrst</a>
<a>uvwxy</a>
<a>z</a>
</node>
Explanation: Primitive recursion with no string length as the stop condition, and with each recursion step producing the next chunk and cutting it from the string.
here is a similar question with an answer which you can change it easily to cover your question: http://www.jguru.com/faq/view.jsp?EID=1070072
