Is there a way to count the elements generated by an XSL within the same XSL?

Question

If I have an XSL that creates output like this simple/rough example:

<Parent1>
  <ABC><xsl:value-of select="SomeValue1"/></ABC>
  <DEF><xsl:value-of select="SomeValue2"/></DEF>
  <GHI><xsl:value-of select="SomeValue3"/></GHI>
  ... 
  <YZ><xsl:value-of select="SomeValue9"/></YZ>
</Parent1>

... within this same XSL, how can I count how many children the XSL will produce?

Answer 1

You can generate your content into a variable, count the children in the variable, and then emit the content of the variable:

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="2.0">
    
    <xsl:template match="/">
        <xsl:variable name="temp-results">
            <Parent1>
                <ABC><xsl:value-of select="SomeValue1"/></ABC>
                <DEF><xsl:value-of select="SomeValue2"/></DEF>
                <GHI><xsl:value-of select="SomeValue3"/></GHI>
                ... 
                <YZ><xsl:value-of select="SomeValue9"/></YZ>
            </Parent1>
        </xsl:variable>
        
        <xsl:text>Number of children:</xsl:text>
        <xsl:value-of select="count($temp-results/Parent1/*)"/>
        <xsl:sequence select="$temp-results"/>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>