Re: counting characters in an XML document

Mike Brown wrote:
> 
> Tom Melkonian wrote:
> > Does anyone know how I can use XSL to count the number of characters in an
> > XML document. I want to process the XML so that, if there are less than a
> > certain amount of characters, a certain message gets printed. Another option
> > could be counting number of tags (elements)
> 
[...snip...]
> 
> So you can easily count element nodes:
> <xsl:value-of select="count(//*)"/>
> 
> Or all nodes:
> <xsl:value-of select="count(//node())"/>

Further example: to count the number of characters in the character data
of the document you could use:
<xsl:value-of select="string-length(/*)"/>

Eg.
<xsl:if test="string-length(/*) &gl; $minchars">
  <xsl:message>The document has less than <xsl:value-of
select="$minchars"/> characters.</xsl:message>
</xsl:if>

> But guessing at the original representation of the document as a string of
> characters, when you all have to go on is the node tree, is impossible to
> do with any accuracy.

Very true.  Bear in mind that an XML document's infoset can have many
physical representations.

Cheers,
Steve Ball

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