[xsl] Re: using format-number() for aligned text output

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman at CraneSoftwrights dot com>]

At 01/03/28 14:59 +0800, ericmacau@china.com wrote:
>Is it possible to define the Alignment of a Text/Number in XSLT ?

Not for text, but I had assumed one could for number.  I've shown below a 
trick for doing text alignment.

But ... I think my test has revealed another facet of format-number() that 
is open for interpretation.

I was anticipating format-number(price,'####0.00') to always produce a 
string of 8 characters in length, yet both processors I have (XT and Saxon) 
are Java based and are using the Java library which is known to have other 
problems for this function.

Any alternative interpretations out there for the specification wording of: 
"digit specifies the character used for a digit in the format pattern; the 
default value is the number sign character (#)"?  Would anyone else expect 
the "#" to produce a space if no digit is there?  If that isn't the 
behaviour, then what is the utility of the "#"?

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

T:\ftemp>type eric.xml
<items>
<item>
<name>Pen</name>
<price>1.25</price>
</item>
<item>
<name>Pencil</name>
<price>0.5</price>
</item>
<item>
<name>Bag</name>
<price>12.38</price>
</item>
</items>
T:\ftemp>type eric.xsl
<?xml version="1.0"?><!--filename.xsl-->
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
                 version="1.0">

<xsl:variable name="pad" select="'              '"/>
<xsl:variable name="pad-len" select="string-length($pad)"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
   <xsl:for-each select="//item">
     <xsl:value-of select="name"/>
     <xsl:value-of select="substring($pad,1,$pad-len - string-length(name))"/>
     <xsl:text>|</xsl:text>
     <xsl:value-of select="format-number(price,'####0.00')"/>
     <xsl:text>
</xsl:text>
   </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

T:\ftemp>xt eric.xml eric.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
Pen           |1.25
Pencil        |0.50
Bag           |12.38

T:\ftemp>


--
G. Ken Holman                      mailto:gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com
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