Convert XML where output element name is dynamic?

Question

I have XML that I need to convert to a more simplified format. I am sure this can be done with XSLT, but I am unsure how.

I need to convert:

<Fields>
  <Field>
    <Name>Element1</Name>
    <Value>Value 1</Value>
  </Field>
  <Field>
    <Name>Element2</Name>
    <Value>Value 2</Value>
  </Field>
</Fields>

into

<Fields>
  <Element1>Value 1</Element1>
  <Element2>Value 2</Element2>
</Fields>

This is what I have currently:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:template match="@* | node()">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="/*">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:copy-of select="Fields/Field/*"/>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="*[name()]"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

kjhughes · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-10 23:58:49Z

1

Your input XML,

<Fields>
  <Field>
    <Name>Element1</Name>
    <Value>Value 1</Value>
  </Field>
  <Field>
    <Name>Element2</Name>
    <Value>Value 2</Value>
  </Field>
</Fields>

transformed by this XSLT,

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="Fields">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="Field">
    <xsl:element name="{Name}">
      <xsl:value-of select="Value"/>
    </xsl:element>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

yields this output XML,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Fields>
  <Element1>Value 1</Element1>
  <Element2>Value 2</Element2>
</Fields>

as requested.

answered Oct 10, 2016 at 23:58

kjhughes

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2 Comments

uL1 Over a year ago

Important notice: There are rules for valid xml element names. (1) Names must not begin with a digit. (2) Names cannot start with special characters such as a hyphen or period. (3) Names cannot contain special characters other than the period, hyphen, underscore, and colon.

Flynn1179 Over a year ago

You can prevent invalid names to an extent with the double translate method- <xsl:element name="{translate(Name, translate(Name, $validChars, ''), '')}"/>, where $validChars is a variable containing all characters you want to allow in a name. This is a bit crude though.

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