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2005-03-11 20:35:09 dnovatchev
> Let me put it this way:
> XSLT (any version) does have an underlying
> type system, but your XSLT stylesheet doesn't
> have to specify the datatype of everything;
> you can even skip the as="" attribute on
> xsl:param if you so desire. XSLT tends to
> handle string/number/node-to-text conversions
> without a lot of fuss--it almost always
> delivers a reasonable result, even if it's not
> what you'd ideally like.
Quite *not* so. I don't think anyone who has actually written XSLT 2.0 code will make the quoted statement.
XSLT 2.0 uses XPath 2.0 which has stringent type-checking rules.
For example, even something as simple as the following transformation raises type errors, as evidenced using Saxon 8.3B:
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:copy-of select="*/*
[3 < substring(@n,2)]"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
when applied on this source xml document:
<t>
<x n="n1"/>
<x n="n2"/>
<x n="n3"/>
<x n="n4"/>
<x n="n5"/>
</t>
the result is:
Saxon 8.3 from Saxonica
Java version 1.5.0_01
Error at xsl:copy-of on line 6 of file:/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.5.0_01/bin/marrowtr.xsl:
XP0006: Cannot compare xs:integer to xs:string
Failed to compile stylesheet. 1 error detected.
Best regards,
Dimitre Novatchev.
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2005-03-11 21:58:12 J David Eisenberg
A quick further note: I also have been testing some XSLT files I wrote for transforming XML to OpenOffice.org files; I just changed the version to 2.0 and everything continued to work. I guess I was unlucky enough to write transformations that didn't hit any of the type problems.
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2005-03-11 22:23:59 dnovatchev
Yes, this may happen and is indeed a question of luck.
Specifying version="1.0" causes the XSLT processor to work in "backwards compatibility mode" but even in this case the XSLT processor uses the XPath 2.0 data model -- therefore it does not completely behave as an XSLT 1.0 processor.
Best regards,
Dimitre Novatchev
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2005-03-11 21:15:58 J David Eisenberg
You're right; my experience with 2.0 is fairly limited, and that's what I get for running a test transformation in Saxon without changing the version from 1.0 to 2.0.
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2005-03-11 20:40:13 dnovatchev
I wrote:
<xsl:copy-of select="*/*
[3 < substring(@n,2)]"/>
</xsl:template>
Of course, the "less-than" operator was written escaped, however it is displayed as"<" -- I just don't know how to enter xslt code so that it would be properly displayed on this site -- anyway, the example is very simple and must be clear.
Dimitre Novatchev
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