xslt cookbook example not working

Question

Hi

I am working on this from xslt cookbook

type my.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<people>
  <person name="Al Zehtooney" age="33" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Brad York" age="38" sex="m" smoker="yes"/>
  <person name="Charles Xavier" age="32" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="David Williams" age="33" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Edward Ulster" age="33" sex="m" smoker="yes"/>
  <person name="Frank Townsend" age="35" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Greg Sutter" age="40" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Harry Rogers" age="37" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="John Quincy" age="43" sex="m" smoker="yes"/>
  <person name="Kent Peterson" age="31" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Larry Newell" age="23" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Max Milton" age="22" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Norman Lamagna" age="30" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Ollie Kensington" age="44" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="John Frank" age="24" sex="m" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Mary Williams" age="33" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Jane Frank" age="38" sex="f" smoker="yes"/>
  <person name="Jo Peterson" age="32" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Angie Frost" age="33" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Betty Bates" age="33" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Connie Date" age="35" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Donna Finster" age="20" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Esther Gates" age="37" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Fanny Hill" age="33" sex="f" smoker="yes"/>
  <person name="Geta Iota" age="27" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Hillary Johnson" age="22" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Ingrid Kent" age="21" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Jill Larson" age="20" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Kim Mulrooney" age="41" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
  <person name="Lisa Nevins" age="21" sex="f" smoker="no"/>
</people>

type generic-attr-to-csv.xslt

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:csv="http://www.ora.com/XSLTCookbook/namespaces/csv"&gt;

<xsl:param name="delimiter" select=" ',' "/>

<xsl:output method="text" />

<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:for-each select="$columns">
    <xsl:value-of select="@name"/>
    <xsl:if test="position( ) != last( )">
      <xsl:value-of select="$delimiter/>
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:for-each>
  <xsl:text>&#xa;</xsl:text>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="/*/*">
  <xsl:variable name="row" select="."/>

  <xsl:for-each select="$columns">
    <xsl:apply-templates select="$row/@*[local-name(.)=current( )/@attr]"
    mode="csv:map-value"/>
    <xsl:if test="position( ) != last( )">
      <xsl:value-of select="$delimiter"/>
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:for-each>

  <xsl:text>&#xa;</xsl:text>

</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="@*" mode="map-value">
  <xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

type my.xsl

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:csv="http://www.ora.com/XSLTCookbook/namespaces/csv"&gt;

<xsl:import href="generic-attr-to-csv.xslt"/>

<!--Defines the mapping from attributes to columns -->
<xsl:variable name="columns" select="document('')/*/csv:column"/>

<csv:column name="Name" attr="name"/>
<csv:column name="Age" attr="age"/>
<csv:column name="Gender" attr="sex"/>
<csv:column name="Smoker" attr="smoker"/>

<!-- Handle custom attribute mappings -->

<xsl:template match="@sex" mode="csv:map-value">
  <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test=".='m'">male</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test=".='f'">female</xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>error</xsl:otherwise>
  </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

using the apache xalan parser

D:\Test>java org.apache.xalan.xslt.Process -in my.xml -xsl my.xsl -out my.csv
[Fatal Error] generic-attr-to-csv.xslt:15:6: The value of attribute "select" associated with an element type "xsl:v
alue-of" must not contain the '<' character.
file:///D:/Test/generic-attr-to-csv.xslt; Line #15; Column #6; org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The value of attribut
e "select" associated with an element type "xsl:value-of" must not contain the '<' character.

java.lang.NullPointerException
        at org.apache.xalan.transformer.TransformerImpl.createSerializationHandler(TransformerImpl.java:1171)
        at org.apache.xalan.transformer.TransformerImpl.createSerializationHandler(TransformerImpl.java:1060)
        at org.apache.xalan.transformer.TransformerImpl.transform(TransformerImpl.java:1268)
        at org.apache.xalan.transformer.TransformerImpl.transform(TransformerImpl.java:1251)
        at org.apache.xalan.xslt.Process.main(Process.java:1048)
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException
        at org.apache.xalan.xslt.Process.doExit(Process.java:1155)
        at org.apache.xalan.xslt.Process.main(Process.java:1128)

Any ideas what am i doing wrong

Answer 1

The error on line 15 is obvious:

  <xsl:value-of select="$delimiter/> 

There is a starting " character, but no ending " character. This isn't even a well-formed XML document.

Solution: replace the line that is in error with:

  <xsl:value-of select="$delimiter"/> 

Note, that now the stating " has a matching ending ".