add a new character at beginning of string

[rabbit]

Hi,I am quite new to XSLT and intending to convert GML (Geographic Markup Language) to SVG. I have

<gml:coordinates>536039.194,105890.715 536037.361,105897.363 536031.151,105931.173</gml:coordinates>

and I need to put an 'M' in front of the first character and then 'L's where there are spaces. I think I have replaced the spaces with L's using

 <xsl:value-of select="translate(osgb:FeatureCollection /osgb:NetworkMember/RoadLink/osgb:polyline/gml:LineString/gml:coordinates, ' ', ' L ')"/>

but I'm not sure how to stick in the M in front of everything. Can anyone give me some pointers please?Thanks very much.

[boen_robot]

What XSLT processor are you using? How (i.e. on the browser, or on the server)?Can you by any chance be using a processor that supports EXSLT's tokenize() function? If so, you can use that function to split all of the coordinates by space, and then loop through them, adding "M" before "value-of"-ing them.Something like:

<xsl:for-each select="str:tokenize(gml:coordinates,' ')/token">M<xsl:value-of select="."/></xsl:for-each>

(again, this will NOT work unless your XSLT processor supports it, and you have something like:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"				xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"				xmlns:str="http://exslt.org/strings"				extension-element-prefixes="str">

as your root element.If you have an XSLT 2.0 processor, a similar function is available natively (i.e. any XSLT 2.0 processor would support it).

[rabbit]

What XSLT processor are you using? How (i.e. on the browser, or on the server)?Can you by any chance be using a processor that supports EXSLT's tokenize() function? If so, you can use that function to split all of the coordinates by space, and then loop through them, adding "M" before "value-of"-ing them.Something like:

<xsl:for-each select="str:tokenize(gml:coordinates,' ')/token">M<xsl:value-of select="."/></xsl:for-each>

(again, this will NOT work unless your XSLT processor supports it, and you have something like:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"				xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"				xmlns:str="http://exslt.org/strings"				extension-element-prefixes="str">

as your root element.If you have an XSLT 2.0 processor, a similar function is available natively (i.e. any XSLT 2.0 processor would support it).

Thanks for your reply.... as for the XSLT processor, i'm not sure which one I will be using... I intend to convert the GML to SVG only once, it won't be done through a browser, I am only after the finished svg image files. I think I made a mistake in my OP... I don't want an M in front of every coordinate, just in front of the very first coordinate, I don't expect tokenize() would work for this, would it?

[boen_robot]

Oh. Only in front of the first coordinate? Well, you can simply include it outside the value-of, and it will be there in the output. Like:

M<xsl:value-of select="translate(osgb:FeatureCollection /osgb:NetworkMember/RoadLink/osgb:polyline/gml:LineString/gml:coordinates, ' ', ' L ')"/>

[rabbit]

Oh. Only in front of the first coordinate? Well, you can simply include it outside the value-of, and it will be there in the output. Like:

M<xsl:value-of select="translate(osgb:FeatureCollection /osgb:NetworkMember/RoadLink/osgb:polyline/gml:LineString/gml:coordinates, ' ', ' L ')"/>

haha, how trivial... I did say I was new to it! Easy when you know how. Thanks!

[rabbit]

Now that I've transformed it I see that my translate function didn't work afterall... the spaces are just removed, not replaced with L's and there is before the M. I tried using normalize-space but it had no effect. Here is my code:

			<xsl:for-each select="/osgb:FeatureCollection/osgb:networkMember/osgb:RoadLink/osgb:polyline/gml:LineString/gml:coordinates">	  								<xsl:variable name="coords">					<xsl:value-of select="/osgb:FeatureCollection/osgb:networkMember/osgb:RoadLink/osgb:polyline/gml:LineString/gml:coordinates"/>				</xsl:variable>					<xsl:variable name="path">		   						M<xsl:value-of select="translate($coords, ' ', ' L ')"/>				</xsl:variable>							 			  <path d ="{$path}" style="stroke:black; fill:none;"/>		 </xsl:for-each>

If anyone could give me any advice, it'd be much appreciated, thanks.

[aalbetski]

do not confuse translate with replace. The translate function will substitute characters positionally, not strings. You're example:<xsl:value-of select="translate($coords, ' ', ' L ')"/>says: for each space replace with a spacetry this<xsl:value-of select="translate($coords, ' ', 'L')"/>

[rabbit]

do not confuse translate with replace. The translate function will substitute characters positionally, not strings. You're example:<xsl:value-of select="translate($coords, ' ', ' L ')"/>says: for each space replace with a spacetry this<xsl:value-of select="translate($coords, ' ', 'L')"/>

Thanks for your reply. I ended up using replace because I needed spaces around the L...and instead of using the variable I did

<xsl:value-of select="replace(., ' ', '  L ')"/>

[aalbetski]

what version of XSLT are you using, there is no replace function in 1.1 (thats what I use)

[rabbit]

what version of XSLT are you using, there is no replace function in 1.1 (thats what I use)

I am using 2.0