At 2008-12-03 15:22 -0600, Cindy Lard wrote:
I am new to XSLT and I am trying to clean up an XML file built from 
a mainframe generated text file that contains all possible elements 
for all nodes. In the new XML I only need to copy the nodes that 
actually have elements that have text values. Is there a way to test 
the deepest child of an element for text value and then copy all 
it's ancestors back to the root? For example, in the attached input 
under the element <Entity> only <Individual> or <Business> should 
exist and not both. If any child elements have text value for the 
element <Individual> all child nodes should be copied, while the 
<Business> element and all it's child nodes should not be copied to 
the new XML file. See example input and output files.

Your sample output data doesn't match your statement of requirements:



Input




<Registration>
 <UserName>DID1901</UserName>
 <ActivityType>25</ActivityType>
 <ActivityDate>2008-10-30T12:10:26</ActivityDate>
 <RegistrationCounty>19</RegistrationCounty>
 <Registrants>
  <Registrant>
   <Entity>
    <Individual>
     <Prefix/>
     <FirstName></FirstName>/>
     <LastName></LastName>/>

There are two text nodes above, each with "/>" in them ... there are no names.



     <Middle/>
     <Suffix/>
    </Individual>
    <Business>
     <MailingAddress>
      <Address>
       <MailingAddressType/>
       <MailingAddressLine1>123 Street</MailingAddressLine1>

The address is a non-blank text node, why is that not included in your output?



       <MailingAddressLine2/>
      </Address>
     </MailingAddress>
    </Business>
   </Entity>
  </Registrant>
 </Registrants>
</Registration>





Output




<Registration>
 <UserName>DID1901</UserName>
 <ActivityType>25</ActivityType>
 <ActivityDate>2008-10-30T12:10:26</ActivityDate>
 <RegistrationCounty>19</RegistrationCounty>
  <Registrants>
  <Registrant>
   <Entity>
    <Individual>
     <Prefix/>
     <FirstName>Joe</FirstName>/>
     <LastName>Doe</LastName>/>
     <Middle/>
     <Suffix/>
    </Individual>
   </Entity>
  </Registrant>
 </Registrants>
</Registration>

I'll assume you had bad data, so below is what I think you need, with 
your given data (cindy1.xml) and then with "cooked" data (cindy2.xml) 
that produces your desired result.



I hope this helps.



. . . . . . . . . . . Ken




T:\ftemp>type cindy.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
                version="1.0">

<!--find all elements that have non-space descendent text characters-->
<xsl:template match="*[normalize-space(.)]">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="*">
  <!--do nothing for elements that don't have a text value descendant-->
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="@*"><!--identity for all other nodes-->
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
T:\ftemp>type cindy1.xml
<Registration>
 <UserName>DID1901</UserName>
 <ActivityType>25</ActivityType>
 <ActivityDate>2008-10-30T12:10:26</ActivityDate>
 <RegistrationCounty>19</RegistrationCounty>
 <Registrants>
  <Registrant>
   <Entity>
    <Individual>
     <Prefix/>
     <FirstName></FirstName>/>
     <LastName></LastName>/>
     <Middle/>
     <Suffix/>
    </Individual>
    <Business>
     <MailingAddress>
      <Address>
       <MailingAddressType/>
       <MailingAddressLine1>123 Street</MailingAddressLine1>
       <MailingAddressLine2/>
      </Address>
     </MailingAddress>
    </Business>
   </Entity>
  </Registrant>
 </Registrants>
</Registration>

T:\ftemp>call xslt cindy1.xml cindy.xsl cindy1.out



T:\ftemp>type cindy1.out
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><Registration>
 <UserName>DID1901</UserName>
 <ActivityType>25</ActivityType>
 <ActivityDate>2008-10-30T12:10:26</ActivityDate>
 <RegistrationCounty>19</RegistrationCounty>
 <Registrants>
  <Registrant>
   <Entity>
    <Individual>

     /&gt;
     /&gt;


    </Individual>
    <Business>
     <MailingAddress>
      <Address>

       <MailingAddressLine1>123 Street</MailingAddressLine1>



      </Address>
     </MailingAddress>
    </Business>
   </Entity>
  </Registrant>
 </Registrants>
</Registration>
T:\ftemp>type cindy2.xml
<Registration>
 <UserName>DID1901</UserName>
 <ActivityType>25</ActivityType>
 <ActivityDate>2008-10-30T12:10:26</ActivityDate>
 <RegistrationCounty>19</RegistrationCounty>
 <Registrants>
  <Registrant>
   <Entity>
    <Individual>
     <Prefix/>
     <FirstName>Joe</FirstName>
     <LastName>Doe</LastName>
     <Middle/>
     <Suffix/>
    </Individual>
    <Business>
     <MailingAddress>
      <Address>
       <MailingAddressType/>
       <MailingAddressLine1></MailingAddressLine1>
       <MailingAddressLine2/>
      </Address>
     </MailingAddress>
    </Business>
   </Entity>
  </Registrant>
 </Registrants>
</Registration>

T:\ftemp>call xslt cindy2.xml cindy.xsl cindy2.out



T:\ftemp>type cindy2.out
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><Registration>
 <UserName>DID1901</UserName>
 <ActivityType>25</ActivityType>
 <ActivityDate>2008-10-30T12:10:26</ActivityDate>
 <RegistrationCounty>19</RegistrationCounty>
 <Registrants>
  <Registrant>
   <Entity>
    <Individual>

     <FirstName>Joe</FirstName>
     <LastName>Doe</LastName>


    </Individual>



   </Entity>
  </Registrant>
 </Registrants>
</Registration>
T:\ftemp>rem Done!





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