using a html entity in xslt (e.g.  )

Question

what is the best way to include a htlm entity in XSLT?

<xsl:template match="/a/node">
    <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    <xsl:text>&nbsp;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

this one returns a XsltParseError

Answer 1

You can use CDATA section

<xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes"><![CDATA[&nbsp;]]></xsl:text>

or you can describe &nbsp in local DTD:

<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [ <!ENTITY nbsp "&#160;"> ]>

or just use   instead of  

Answer 2

this one returns a XsltParseError

Yes, and the reason for that is that   is not a predefined entity in XML or XSLT as it is in HTML.

You could just use the unicode character which   stands for:  

Answer 3

one other possibility to use html entities from within xslt is the following one:

<xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">&amp;nbsp;</xsl:text>

Answer 4

XSLT only handles the five basic entities by default: lt, gt, apos, quot, and amp. All others need to be defined as @Aku mentions.

Answer 5

Now that there's Unicode, it's generally counter-productive to use named character entities. I would recommend using the Unicode character for a non-breaking space instead of an entity, just for that reason. Alternatively, you could use the entity &#160;, instead of the named entity. Using named entities makes your XML dependent on an inline or external DTD.