Enjoy! (was: Re: Limit the length of transformed

<!-- XSLT -->
<xsl:stylesheet
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 version="1.0"
 >
 <xsl:variable name="snipSize" select="25"/>

 <xsl:template match="/">
  <root>
   <xsl:apply-templates mode="snippet" select="foo/content/node()[1]"/>
  </root>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="*|text()" mode="snippet">
  <xsl:param name="currentLength" select="0"/>

  <xsl:choose>
   <!-- Text node -->
   <xsl:when test="self::text()">
    <xsl:choose>
     <!-- Does the text fit the lasting room? -->
     <xsl:when test="$newLength &lt;= $snipSize">
      <!-- Output the text content! -->
      <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)"/>

      <xsl:text>[...]</xsl:text>
     </xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
   </xsl:when>
   <!-- Any other kind of node -->
   <xsl:otherwise>
    <!-- Apply the identity transformation to the current node! -->
    <xsl:copy>
     <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>

     <!-- Go deep inside the subnode hierarchy (vertical axis)! -->
     <xsl:apply-templates select="child::node()[1]" mode="snippet">
      <xsl:with-param name="currentLength" select="$currentLength"/>
     </xsl:apply-templates>
    </xsl:copy>

<!-- OUTPUT -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
 <section>
  <title>1st section</title>
  <content>This is the<strong>1st[...]</strong></content>
 </section>
</root>

if you need to snip at arbitrary depth it gets harder, this just adds
complete elements until you are too long or snips top level text

==============

<foo>
<item>This is the <strong>body</strong> of an article interspersed with <strong>markup tags</strong> I'm striving to snip.</item>
</foo>

==============

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">

<xsl:variable name="tl" select="26"/>

<xsl:template match="foo">
<snippets>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</snippets>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="item">
<snippet>
<xsl:apply-templates mode="s" select="node()[1]"/>
</snippet>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="strong">
<i>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</i>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*" mode="s">
<xsl:param name="l" select="0"/>
<xsl:variable name="x">
<xsl:apply-templates select="."/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="xl" select="string-length($x)"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$l + $xl &lt;= $tl">
<xsl:copy-of select="$x"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::node()[1]" mode="s">
<xsl:with-param name="l" select="$l+$xl"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>[...]</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="text()" mode="s">
<xsl:param name="l" select="0"/>

<xsl:variable name="xl" select="string-length(.)"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$l + $xl &lt;= $tl">
 <xsl:value-of select="."/>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::node()[1]" mode="s">
    <xsl:with-param name="l" select="$l+$xl"/>
  </xsl:apply-templates>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="substring(.,1,$l + $tl - $xl)"/>[...]</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

==============

$ saxon snip.xml snip.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><snippets>
<snippet>This is the <i>body</i> of an a[...]</snippet>
</snippets>