Remove parent node if child node is empty - xslt

Question

I am trying to transform a given XML using xslt. The caveat is that I would have to delete a parent node if a given child node is not present. I did do some template matching, but I am stuck. Any help would be appreciated.
The input xml :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<main>
<item>
<value>
<item>
<value>ABC</value>
<key>test1</key>
</item>
<item>
<value>XYZ</value>
<key>test2</key>
</item>
<item>
<value></value>
<key>test3</key>
</item>
</value>
</item>
<item>
<value />
<key>test4</key>
</item>
<item>
<value>PQR</value>
<key>test5</key>
</item>
</main>
Expected Output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<main>
<item>
<value>
<item>
<value>ABC</value>
<key>test1</key>
</item>
<item>
<value>XYZ</value>
<key>test2</key>
</item>
</value>
</item>
<item>
<value>PQR</value>
<key>test5</key>
</item>
</main>
The issue is if I use template matching e.g.
<xsl:template match="item[not(value)]"/> as mentioned in deleting the parent node if child node is not present in xml using xslt, then it completely removes everything as main/item/value is also empty.
What I need is remove if element is empty but only do if element has no child element.

Answer 1

You should first start with the XSLT identity template
<xsl:template match="#*|node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="#*|node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
Then, all you need is a template that matches the item element where all descendent leaf value elements are empty.
<xsl:template match="item[not(descendant::value[not(*)][normalize-space()])]" />
So, the template matches it, but doesn't output it.
Try this XSLT
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" />
<xsl:template match="item[not(descendant::value[not(*)][normalize-space()])]" />
<xsl:template match="#*|node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="#*|node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Answer 2

I think you want to remove the element of it has no children at all (whether those children be elements or text nodes). Try inserting this template:
<xsl:template match="item">
<xsl:if test="exists(value/node())">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:copy-of select="#*"/>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

Answer 3

If I read this correctly, you want to do:
XSLT 1.0
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
<!-- identity transform -->
<xsl:template match="#*|node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="#*|node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="item[not(value[node()])]"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>
This will remove any item that does not have a value child with some content.