Creating a variable number of nodes on target document without corresponding data on source document - xslt

Question

I'm trying to map two documents witht the BizTalk Mapper and my target document should look like this:
<root>
<complexType>
<property>example</property>
</complexType>
<filler>
<padding>9999999</padding>
</filler>
<filler>
<padding>9999999</padding>
</filler>
<filler>
<padding>9999999</padding>
</filler>
</root>
The number of <filler> nodes that I should create is variable (from 0 to 9). It is basically the result of a calculation (based on some data provided in the source document).
Is there a way to create those <filler> nodes with some combination of functoids?
I tried to use the Table Looping functoid (created a table with only one column, the padding char '9') but doesn't really work because it creates as many <filler> nodes as rows are defined in the table, which is not what I want since the number of rows would have to be variable (again, based on a calculation).
What I currently do is pass the message (XmlDocument) to a C# method and then I programmatically append the <filler> nodes.
I'm hoping that there is a more "BizTalk-y" way of doing this with the Mapper.

Answer 1

I suspect that you will have to solve this problem by altering the XSLT.
Add some logic to create as many filler nodes as the result of your calculation dictates - you could create a template which you call in a loop perhaps, which would append a new filler section.
Hope this points you in the right direction.

Answer 2

As pointed out, XSLT can create nodes on the target document at will (I didn't know this and this was the key part).
Turns out that what I needed is a simple for-loop in XSLT. Once I realized this, a quick Google search yielded the following results:
http://quomon.com/question-How-to-make-a-for-loop-in-xslt-not-for-each-809.aspx
http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/930
Another thing worth noting is that (as pointed out by the first link), XSLT is a functional language, not procedural, so sometimes you do have to resort to using recursion or an extension.
This case is definitely one of those times since I couldn't use a careful selection of nodes using the select attribute on an xsl:for-each (since this filler data wasn't part of the source document).
Specifically, for this case, what I did was:
Add a Scripting functoid.
Add two inputs:
A constant with value "1" (this is the initial value of the i variable)
The length of the loop (number of times to repeat the body of the loop)
Paste the following XSLT template as an "Inline XSLT Call Template" script:
<xsl:template name="ForLoop">
<xsl:param name="i" /> <!-- index counter, 1-based, will be incremented with every recursive call -->
<xsl:param name="length" /> <!-- exit loop when i >= length -->
<!-- Output the desired node(s) if we're still looping -->
<!-- The base case is when i > length (in that case, do nothing) -->
<xsl:if test="$i <= $length">
<Filler>
<Padding>999999</Padding>
</Filler>
</xsl:if>
<!-- Call the ForLoop template recursively, incrementing i -->
<xsl:if test="$i <= $length">
<xsl:call-template name="ForLoop">
<xsl:with-param name="i">
<xsl:value-of select="$i + 1"/>
</xsl:with-param>
<xsl:with-param name="length">
<xsl:value-of select="$length"/>
</xsl:with-param>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>