Inline element data not appearing where expected after XSL transform - xslt

Question

With the following XML
<para>Refer to Table 3 and Figure <grphcref refid="apm00-02-02-000018" shownow="0">6</grphcref>
for the door dimensions and clearances.</para>
and this XSL:
<xsl:template match="prcitem">
<xsl:for-each select="para">
<p>
<xsl:value-of select="." />
<xsl:apply-templates select="./grphcref" />
</p>
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:apply-templates select="grphcref" />
<xsl:apply-templates select="table" />
<xsl:apply-templates select="unlist" />
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="grphcref">
<xsl:variable name="gotoimg" select="concat('#',#refid)"/>
<a href="{$gotoimg}" >
<xsl:value-of select="." /> - <xsl:value-of select="#refid" /> </a>
</xsl:template>
I get:
<p>Refer to Table 3 and Figure 6 for the door dimensions and clearances.
6 - apm00-02-02-000018
when I expected:
<p>Refer to Table 3 and Figure 6 - apm00-02-02-000018
for the door dimensions and clearances.
Can anyone offer guidance as to where I went wrong?
thx

Answer 1

If a para element is supposed to be transformed to a p element then in my view the "natural" way in XSLT is a template
<xsl:template match="para">
<p>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</p>
</xsl:template>
If any other elements need special treatment add a template e.g.
<xsl:template match="grphcref">
<xsl:variable name="gotoimg" select="concat('#',#refid)"/>
<a href="{$gotoimg}" >
<xsl:value-of select="." /> - <xsl:value-of select="#refid" /> </a>
</xsl:template>
Text nodes are copied through to the result by the built-in templates.
The input sample doesn't explain why you mix template matching and for-each and why or whether you need xsl:apply-templates with any particularly selected nodes; as long as the input order should be preserved a simple processing of all child nodes with <xsl:apply-templates/> should suffice.