Re: Avoiding dummy xsl:if with apply-templates

I find myself struggling with a construct I often need: conditionally, "else",
do something radically different depending on input.

For example:

           <xsl:variable name="el" select="elements" />
            <xsl:if test="count($el)">

                <ul>
                    <xsl:apply-templates select="$el" />
                </ul>
            </xsl:if>

Here, the if statement and variable declaration exists solely to avoid an
empty ul element; the special condition which occurs when the select misses.

Producing xhtml tables is a similar case. I find these common situations in
XSLT programming.

These examples can be solved with usual conditional tests, as above, but I
want to push the conditionalis upon the engine and write with templates; the
clean, XSLT-like way. AFAICT, this made-up syntax would solve the problem:

<xsl:apply-templates select="elements">
        <ul>
                <xsl:apply/>
        </ul>
</xsl:apply-templates>

 <xsl:if test="elements">
   <ul>
     <xsl:apply-templates select="elements"/>
   </ul>
 </xsl:if>

Hence, when the select clause fails, the apply-templates body is not entered,
and the conditionalis is not needed to be manually written and comes
naturally, even.

What is the proper way of doing what I want?

--
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