XSLT to process plain text file to XML using xslt 2.0 or higher

Question

I am working with a client who uses 'Workday' ERP. This ERP mainly deals with XML, XSLT and XSD scripting but not other programming languages to transform the data in and out of the ERP.

I have a fixed-length text file (sample Below) that I am trying to convert it to XML for further processing in my code. I have always used XSLT to convert xml to xml (OR) xml to text but not vice versa.

Can you please guide me or provide a sample XSLT (2.0 or 3.0) to convert the below text data into target XML (below).

Input Fixed Length File: (First Character is record Type, X, H are headers, the last T, F are trailers. Each Employee record starts with 1 E record, followed by multiple W records and B records (Optional)).

X T3.03Q2020320201029015631AACW2                                                                                                                               xxxxxxx                  2020xx                            090420                                
H ZXCV          20200930      ABCABCA ABCABC                                     
E ******13662       372022456           Tony             B                StarkS              99999 Heritage Pkwy                                         zzzzzz                        MI48092                   YNNNMS19960706        19720724               PM                                 99999 Heritage Pkwy                                                             zzzzzz                        MI48092             
WW_SWW26                            61322         1524206         1442835         1442835               0               0               0               0             0               0            215611         5342667         5073153         5073153                               0               0                               0                          NN                 0               0   N  N       0000000000YYY 14  440            0             0             0             0             0   0N                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
WW_CITYR2665440                      9192          972143          919215          919215               0               0               0               0             0               0              9192          972143          919215          919215                               0               0                               0                          NN                 0               0   N  N       0000000000NYY 14  440            0             0             0             0             0   0N                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
BW_OASFEDERAL                       93217         1524206         1503506         1503506               0               0               0               0             0               0            327181         5342667         5277117         5277117                               0               0                               0                          NN                 0               0   N  N       0000000000YYY 14  440            0             0             0             0             0   0N                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
E ******10665       362022493           Thor             S                Asar                2323 Clyde Road                                             Highzzzz                      MI48357                   YNNNMS19990517        19760301               PM                                 2323 Clyde Road                                                                 Highzzzz                      MI48357             
WW_SWW26                            61322         1524206         1442835         1442835               0               0               0               0             0               0            215611         5342667         5073153         5073153                               0               0                               0                          NN                 0               0   N  N       0000000000YYY 14  440            0             0             0             0             0   0N                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
WW_CITYR2665440                      9192          972143          919215          919215               0               0               0               0             0               0              9192          972143          919215          919215                               0               0                               0                          NN                 0               0   N  N       0000000000NYY 14  440            0             0             0             0             0   0N                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
BW_OASFEDERAL                       93217         1524206         1503506         1503506               0               0               0               0             0               0            327181         5342667         5277117         5277117                               0               0                               0                          NN                 0               0   N  N       0000000000YYY 14  440            0             0             0             0             0   0N                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
BW_OASFEDERAL                       93217         1524206         1503506         1503506               0               0               0               0             0               0            327181         5342667         5277117         5277117                               0               0                               0                          NN                 0               0   N  N       0000000000YYY 14  440            0             0             0             0             0   0N                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
T        39384       1699589934 
F        43442       1854024842

The expected XMl output is something like below:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<File>
    <X_Header></X_Header>
    <H_Header></H_Header>
    <All_Employees>
        <Employee>
            <E_record></E_record>
            <W_record></W_record>
            <W_record></W_record>
            <W_record></W_record>
            <B_record></B_record>
        </Employee>
        <Employee>
            <E_record></E_record>
            <W_record></W_record>
            <W_record></W_record>
            <W_record></W_record>
            <B_record></B_record>
        </Employee>
    </All_Employees>
    <T_Trailer></T_Trailer>
    <F_Trailer></F_Trailer>
</File>

In XSLT 2 you have the unparsed-text XPath 2 function to read in a text file into a string, in XSLT 3 you additionally have unparsed-text-lines as a function to read in a text file in a sequence of strings representing the lines. You usually start processing in that case with a named template (e.g. <xsl:template name="main">...</xsl:template> in XSLT 2 or in XSLT 3 with the predefined <xsl:template name="xsl:initial-template">...</xsl:template>. To further break up strings use the tokenize function and/or the analyze-string function or the xsl:analyze-string instruction. — Martin Honnen
– Martin Honnen, Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 12:47

Martin Honnen · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-14 13:10:01Z

So XSLT 3 code could use e.g.

  <xsl:param name="lines" select="unparsed-text-lines('file.txt')"/>
  
  <xsl:template match=".[. instance of xs:string]" mode="header">
      <xsl:element name="{substring(., 1, 1)}_Header">
          <xsl:apply-templates select="tokenize(., '\s+')" mode="data"/>
      </xsl:element>
  </xsl:template>
  
  <xsl:template match=".[. instance of xs:string]" mode="trailer">
      <xsl:element name="{substring(., 1, 1)}_Trailer">
          <xsl:apply-templates select="tokenize(., '\s+')" mode="data"/>
      </xsl:element>
  </xsl:template>
  
  <xsl:template match=".[. instance of xs:string]">
      <xsl:element name="{substring(., 1, 1)}_Record">
          <xsl:apply-templates select="tokenize(., '\s+')" mode="data"/>
      </xsl:element>
  </xsl:template>
  
  <xsl:template match="." mode="data" expand-text="yes">
      <Data>{.}</Data>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="/" name="xsl:initial-template">
    <File>
        <xsl:apply-templates mode="header" select="$lines[starts-with(., 'H') or starts-with(., 'X')]"/>
        <All_Employees>
            <xsl:for-each-group select="$lines[not(matches(., '^[HXTF]'))]" group-starting-with=".[starts-with(., 'E')]">
                <Employee>
                    <xsl:apply-templates select="current-group()"/>
                </Employee>
            </xsl:for-each-group>
        </All_Employees>
        <xsl:apply-templates mode="trailer" select="$lines[starts-with(., 'T') or starts-with(., 'F')]"/>
    </File>
  </xsl:template>

You haven't spelled out how to parse each line but you can easily adapt the tokenization and the templates.

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