Re: removing nodes to parent based on all child nodes

Thank you all so much for your help. The example data was not correct as you pointed out. The input and desired output should have been as follows:

Input
...
Output
...

In this case there only needs to be either <Individual> or <Business> under <Entity>. Either the registration is for an individual or business. Both should not exist in the same file. Because the business registration information is being pulled from a legacy system certain information required in the XML may not be available, such as <MailingAddressType/> and <MailingAddressLine2/> as in the preceding example. However, if any descendant element of a child has a text value such as <MailingAddressLine1>123 Street</MailingAddressLine1> it's parent and siblings all need to be copied even if those siblings have no text value the nodes need to be copied.

If no descendant elements have a text value as is the case with <Individual> that node and all descendant nodes of that element need to be stripped out. Wow, I hope that wasn't too confusing.

All the templates I have used thus far will strip out any element with no text value, which removes the needed (dare I say required) elements of <MailingAddressType/> and <MailingAddressLine2/> under the <Address> element.

T:\ftemp>type cindy.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
                version="1.0">

<!--preserve all elements whose descendant has text or who has a parent that
    has a leaf child with text-->
<xsl:template match="*[.//*[normalize-space(.)] or
                       ../*[not(*) and normalize-space(.)]]">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="*">
  <!--do nothing for elements that don't have a text value descendant-->
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="@*"><!--identity for all other nodes-->
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

T:\ftemp>type cindy1.out
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><Registration>
     <UserName>DID1901</UserName>
     <ActivityType>25</ActivityType>
     <ActivityDate>2008-10-30T12:10:26</ActivityDate>
     <RegistrationCounty>19</RegistrationCounty>
     <Registrants>
          <Registrant>
               <Entity>

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