XSLT string formatting functions

["Albert Tsun" <albert dot tsun at excel dot com dot hk>]

Hi all,

I am now trying to develop a Report Engine using XML file as datasource and
 XSL file as report template to output a formatted report in text-file
format.

I use Xalan to do the transform to a get rid of the tags in XML files. But
I got problems when I try to place XML data in desired positions
using XSL construct.

(1) How to have indentation, linefeed and space precisely placed in
transformed output?  In my XSL, I use <xsl:text> to represent spaces and
linefeed.
how can I make a string value (e.g. <xsl:value-of select="x1"/> to have a
specific length? Because the text node may contain variable length, in
order to
place them nicely in report, I want to pad space before, after the text
value.

(2) Besides, is there any  decimal format functions to nicely format text
(which should be numeric figures) in specified format-string ?

for example, in my XML source
<Price>   1000</Price>

How can I transform the 1000 (text) into a nicely formatted decimal string
using XSL element?

For example, if I want in my textual report:
     Price = [1,000.00]
          ( if I want to have formatted string of length 8 and have
grouping separator "," and decimal-separator=".")
  or Price = [  1,000.00] (with 2 spaces padded before 1,000.00)
             ( if I want to have formatted string of length 10 and have
grouping separator "," and decimal-separator=".")

Do I need to use <xsl:deimal-format> , format-number(.....) and if they are
used, how can I apply in XSL and define them?

Many Thanks in advance




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