Removing the root element using xslt - xslt

Question

I have an xml schema that has a structure like
<Level>
<Level1>...data...</Level1>
<Level2>...data...</Level2>
.
.
.
</Level>
I want to remove the <Level> tag. How am I supposed to do that, with the help of xslt.

Answer 1

The standard answer to any "how do I keep most of my XML the same but tweak some little bits of it" question is "use an identity template and then override it for the specific things you want to change"
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<!-- omit the <?xml?> line in the output, it won't be well-formed anyway -->
<xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />
<xsl:template match="#*|node()">
<xsl:copy><xsl:apply-templates select="#*|node()" /></xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="/*">
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()" />
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
but as Mr Lister points out in the comments, this will leave you with something that is not well formed XML, as it will have more than one document element.
When I apply this stylesheet on the input XML
<Level>
<Level1>...data...</Level1>
<Level2>...data...</Level2>
</Level>
it produces the result
<Level1>...data...</Level1>
<Level2>...data...</Level2>

Answer 2

If you want to store all child elements of the document element in a variable, you can do something like:
<xsl:variable name="myVar" select="/*/*"/>
If, however, you want to the stylesheet to produce a string, this might be a solution:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="text"/>
<xsl:template match="/*">
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*">
<!-- We write the opening tag -->
<xsl:value-of select="concat('<',local-name())"/>
<!-- Now, all attributes -->
<xsl:apply-templates select="#*"/>
<!-- Depending on whether we have an empty element or not,
we're adding the content or closing it immediately -->
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="node()">
<!-- Close opening tag -->
<xsl:value-of select="'>'"/>
<!-- Add the content -->
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
<!-- Write closing tag -->
<xsl:value-of select="concat('</',local-name(),'>')"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<!-- Create empty element by closing tag immediately -->
<xsl:value-of select="'/>'"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="#*">
<!-- Write an attribute -->
<xsl:value-of select="concat(' ',local-name(),'="',.,'"')"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
It produces text (and therefore you won't get non-well-formed XML). It's a little over-simplified because it does not handle namespaces, comments, processing instructions and quotes in attributes. If your input XML contains any of these, you'd have to refine the stylesheet.

Answer 3

I have created a new XSLT definition which fulfill my requremtn with the help of your code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output encoding="utf-8" method="text" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:variable name="nl">
<xsl:text/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="tb">
<xsl:text/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:template match="/*">
<!-- Open the root array -->
<xsl:text>[{</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="$nl"/>
<!-- Process all the child nodes of the root -->
<xsl:apply-templates mode="detect" select="*">
<xsl:with-param name="indent" select="$tb"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>
<!-- Close the root array -->
<xsl:value-of select="$nl"/>
<xsl:text>}]</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*" mode="detect">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="name(preceding-sibling::*[1]) = name(current()) and name(following-sibling::*[1]) != name(current())">
<xsl:apply-templates mode="obj-content" select="."/>
<xsl:text>]</xsl:text>
<xsl:if test="count(following-sibling::*[name() != name(current())]) > 0">, </xsl:if>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="name(preceding-sibling::*[1]) = name(current())">
<xsl:apply-templates mode="obj-content" select="."/>
<xsl:if test="name(following-sibling::*) = name(current())">, </xsl:if>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="following-sibling::*[1][name() = name(current())]">
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
<xsl:text>" : [</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates mode="obj-content" select="."/>
<xsl:text>, </xsl:text>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="count(./child::*) > 0 or count(#*) > 0">
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>" : [<xsl:apply-templates
mode="obj-content" select="."/>
<xsl:if test="count(following-sibling::*) > 0">], </xsl:if>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="count(./child::*) = 0">
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>" : "<xsl:apply-templates select="."/>
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:if test="count(following-sibling::*) > 0">, </xsl:if>
</xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*" mode="obj-content">
<xsl:text>{</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates mode="attr" select="#*"/>
<xsl:if test="count(#*) > 0 and (count(child::*) > 0 or text())">, </xsl:if>
<xsl:apply-templates mode="detect" select="./*"/>
<xsl:if test="count(child::*) = 0 and text() and not(#*)">
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>" : "<xsl:value-of select="text()"/>
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:if test="count(child::*) = 0 and text() and #*">
<xsl:text>: "</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="text()"/>
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:text>}</xsl:text>
<xsl:if test="position() < last()">, </xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="#*" mode="attr">
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>" : "<xsl:value-of select="."/>
<xsl:text>"</xsl:text>
<xsl:if test="position() < last()">,</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="node/#TEXT | text()" name="removeBreaks">
<xsl:param name="pText" select="normalize-space(.)"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="not(contains($pText, '
'))">
<xsl:copy-of select="$pText"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="concat(substring-before($pText, '
'), ' ')"/>
<xsl:call-template name="removeBreaks">
<xsl:with-param name="pText" select="substring-after($pText, '
')"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>