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Brad Thacker

Subject: Convert linefeed-separated text file to nested XML
Author: Brad Thacker
Date: 16 Jul 2008 12:22 PM

I just installed Stylus Studio and am attempting to use it to convert a file of linefeed-separated text records to nested XML. The structure of the initial text file looks like this:

0 | item#1 |..| ..| ..| ..| ... (other fields)
1 | item#2 |..| ..| ..| ..|
2 | item#3 |..| ..| ..| ..|
2 | item#4 |..| ..| ..| ..|
1 | item#5 |..| ..| ..| ..|

and I need to convert it to a nested XML structure in which the level of nesting is determined by the first field in the pipe-delineated file. The output should look like this:

<record level="0"> <item>item#1</item>
<record level="1"><item>item#2</item>
<record level="2"><item>item#3</item>
</record>
<record level="2"><item>item#4</item>
</record>
</record>
<record level="1"><item>item#5</item>
</record>
</record>

I read through Chapter 3 of the users manual that describes how to convert text to XML, but did not find any information that hinted at how to do this nesting. What I end up with is a flat structure:

<record level="0"><item>item#1</item></record>
<record level="1"><item>item#2</item></record>
<record level="2"><item>item#3</item></record>
<record level="2"><item>item#4</item></record>
<record level="1"><item>item#5</item></record>

Is it possible to use the tool set native to Stylus Studio to get the proper nesting, or do I need to perform an XSLT conversion on the flat XML structure above to get it?

I did find a set of XSLT conversion templates that can take the flat XML structure and convert it to the nested one, but I would prefer to do the complete transformation in one step, if possible.

Thanks for your help.
Brad

Minollo I.

Subject: Convert linefeed-separated text file to nested XML
Author: Minollo I.
Date: 16 Jul 2008 12:51 PM

You do need a post-processing step based on XQuery or XSLT to generate the structure you are looking for.

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