Chapter 10. Controlling Output Options

• <xsl:output>

• <xsl:strip-space>

• <xsl:preserve-space>

• <xsl:message>

In this chapter, we will work with elements that are, for the most part, concerned with how the output from the stylesheet is handled or processed, and what kind of output it will be. The first element, <xsl:output>, is not used to create output (contrary to its name), but controls the logical structure of the output, and what kinds of processing-specific components are to be included or excluded. The other two top-level elements discussed in this chapter are the complementary pair <xsl:strip-space> and <xsl:preserve-space>. Notably, <xsl:strip-space> and <xsl:preserve-space> do not affect output directly; they govern the handling of whitespace in the input tree, which of course can affect the whitespace in the output result tree.

As another output option, messages such as logs and errors can be generated from the actual processing of the stylesheet using the <xsl:message> element, which is discussed in the last section of this chapter.