I need to define a xslt to combine couple of elements with separators for custom defined xsd types

Question

I have couple of custom types which have 2, 3 or 4 childs. So wherever I get these childs I need to combine them into a single element which is the parent tag itself in the output XML. I tried but could not do due to lack of experience with xslt. Can any one help.

My input XML.

<PERSON>
  <ID>194</ID>
  <NAME>IKHAJA</NAME>
  <DETAILS>
     <NUMBER>100</NUMBER>
     <Description />
     <NUMBER01 />
     <NUMBER02>Test</NUMBER02>
  </DETAILS>
  <STATUS>
     <NUMBER>ACTIVE</NUMBER>
     <Description>ACTIVE</Description>
     <NUMBER01 />
     <NUMBER02>ACTIVE</NUMBER02>
  </STATUS>
  <employer>
     <ID>123456</ID>
     <FNAME>EMPLOYER F NAME</FNAME>
     <LNAME>EMPLOYER L NAME</LNAME>
  </employer>
  <PERSON_OFF>
     <TYPE>
         <NUMBER>41</NUMBER>
         <Description>AMPLIFIERS</Description>
         <NUMBER01>77</NUMBER01>
         <NUMBER02 />
     </TYPE>
     <REPORT>
         <NUMBER />
         <Description />
         <NUMBER01 />
         <NUMBER02 />
     </REPORT>
     <SERIAL>111</SERIAL>
     <ADDITIONAL_DESC>TEST</ADDITIONAL_DESC>
     <KEY>5</KEY>
     <CREATED_BY>Test Guy</CREATED_BY>
     <CREATED_ON>2013-03-13T10:03:00</CREATED_ON>
     <PERSON_OFF_ONE>
         <BULK>
            <NUMBER>98078</NUMBER>
            <Description>BULK</Description>
            <NUMBER01 />
            <NUMBER02>8563</NUMBER02>
         </BULK>
         <CHECKED>Y</CHECKED>
     </PERSON_OFF_ONE>
  </PERSON_OFF>
</PERSON>

And my output XML should be like this:

<PERSON>
   <ID>194</ID>
   <NAME>IKHAJA</NAME>
   <DETAILS>100;;;Test</DETAILS>
   <STATUS>ACTIVE;ACTIVE;;ACTIVE</STATUS>
   <employer>123456:EMPLOYER F NAME,EMPLOYER L NAME</employer>
   <PERSON_OFF>
       <TYPE>41;AMPLIFIERS;77;</TYPE>
       <REPORT>;;;</REPORT>
       <SERIAL>111</SERIAL>
       <ADDITIONAL_DESC>TEST</ADDITIONAL_DESC>
       <KEY>5</KEY>
       <CREATED_BY>Test Guy</CREATED_BY>
       <CREATED_ON>2013-03-13T10:03:00</CREATED_ON>
       <PERSON_OFF_ONE>
            <BULK>98078;BULK;;8563</BULK>
            <CHECKED>Y</CHECKED>
       </PERSON_OFF_ONE>
   </PERSON_OFF>
</PERSON>

If you observe here details, status, bulk etc. are my custom types which have child nodes NUMBER, Description, NUMBER01, NUMBRER02. and I need to combine them with a separator ";" if they are empty or null just I will have ";;;" in my destination column as shown in REPORT field.

Also I have some fields of employer type like employer with childs ID, FNAME and LNAME and I should combine them as ID: FNAME, LNAME as shown in employer field.

I think if I know handling one custom type, I can handle the other types easily.

Can you please help? I already spent whole day on this and I need to do this very badly ASAP.

Answer 1

OP's comment to the answer by JLRishe:

It works if I list all of my custom types but, here I have so many fields that are of my custom types. Instead of listing out all those like "DETAILS | STATUS | TYPE | REPORT | BULK", is there any way to merge fields of these.

This can be done easily, using the fact that all these possibly hundreds of parent elements have one of four children.

A minor adjustment to JLRishe's solution works with unlimited number of parent names:

 <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
    <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

    <xsl:template match="@* | node()">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="*[NUMBER|Description|NUMBER01|NUMBER02]">
            <xsl:copy>
              <xsl:apply-templates select="*" mode="delimit" />
            </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="*[position() > 1]" mode="delimit">
    <xsl:value-of select="concat(';', .)"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="employer">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="*" mode="idlist" />
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="ID" mode="idlist">
    <xsl:value-of select="concat(., ':')" />
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="*[not(self::ID)][position() > 1]" mode="idlist">
    <xsl:value-of select="concat(',', .)" />
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

As you see, this transformation doesn't mention at all any parent names such as DETAILS, STATUS, TYPE, REPORT, BULK, ..., etc.

and when applied on the provided XML document, produces the wanted, correct result:

<PERSON>
   <ID>194</ID>
   <NAME>IKHAJA</NAME>
   <DETAILS>100;;;Test</DETAILS>
   <STATUS>ACTIVE;ACTIVE;;ACTIVE</STATUS>
   <employer>123456:EMPLOYER F NAME,EMPLOYER L NAME</employer>
   <PERSON_OFF>
      <TYPE>41;AMPLIFIERS;77;</TYPE>
      <REPORT>;;;</REPORT>
      <SERIAL>111</SERIAL>
      <ADDITIONAL_DESC>TEST</ADDITIONAL_DESC>
      <KEY>5</KEY>
      <CREATED_BY>Test Guy</CREATED_BY>
      <CREATED_ON>2013-03-13T10:03:00</CREATED_ON>
      <PERSON_OFF_ONE>
         <BULK>98078;BULK;;8563</BULK>
         <CHECKED>Y</CHECKED>
      </PERSON_OFF_ONE>
   </PERSON_OFF>
</PERSON>