RE: xsl:number format tokens in XSLT 1.0

> For example, (results taken from Xalan and Saxon both)
> 
> <xsl:number value="8" format="001"> will produce "008"
> 
> similarly...
> 
> <xsl:number value="8" format="999"> will also produce "008"
> 
> The TR specifies that any token outside of the 5 predefined 
> types should 
> cause a numbering sequence beginning with that token. Can 
> anyone explain 
> more clearly why '999' doesn't fall into this category?

Interesting if both Saxon and Xalan have taken this route. There are similar
cases where I know they have interpreted the spec differently, for example
see what happens with a format token of "C".

I agree that a stricter reading of the spec would probably output "8" rather
than "008" in your example. But the details of xsl:number output, when the
format token isn't one of those specified (or to some extent even when it
is) are left very much to the good sense of the implementator. For example,
an implementation that (with format="999") represented 1 as 999 and 8 as 008
would be conformant, but not very useful.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/