> <xsl:variable name="thing">"<xsl:value-of
> select="replace(.,',',concat($quot,',',$quot))"/>"</xsl:variable> and
> the value of the variable $quot is obvious.
>
> If I were to make $thing a typed variable what would it  be.

xs:string+

or wrap all of the contents in <xsl:value-of> (with no select
attribute) and then use xs:string

or (most efficiently) change the existing value-of to xsl:sequence and
concat the double quotes,  and use xs:string.

(fwiw, if you want to create json there are plenty of existing
solutions out there)



-- 
Andrew Welch
http://andrewjwelch.com