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Generating Text with xsl:text
You can create text nodes with the <xsl:text> element, allowing you to do things such as replace whole elements with text on the fly. One reason you can use <xsl:text> is to preserve whitespace, as in this example from earlier in the chapter, where I used <xsl:text> to insert spaces:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/PLANETS">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
The Planets Table
</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>
The Planets Table
</H1>
<TABLE>
<TD>Name</TD>
<TD>Mass</TD>
<TD>Radius</TD>
<TD>Day</TD>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="PLANET">
<TR>
<TD><xsl:value-of select="NAME"/></TD>
<TD><xsl:apply-templates select="MASS"/></TD>
<TD><xsl:apply-templates select="RADIUS"/></TD>
</TR>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="MASS">
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
<xsl:text> </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="@UNITS"/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="RADIUS">
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
<xsl:text> </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="@UNITS"/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="DAY">
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
<xsl:text> </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="@UNITS"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Another reason to use <xsl:text> is when you want characters such as < and & to appear in your output document, not < and &. To do that, you set the <xsl:text> element’s disable-output-escaping attribute to "yes":
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="PLANETS">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
Planets
</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<xsl:apply-templates select="PLANET"/>
</BODY>
</HTML>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="PLANET">
<xsl:text disable-output-escaping = "yes">
<PLANET>
</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Here is the result:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
Planets
</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<PLANET>
<PLANET>
<PLANET>
</BODY>
</HTML>