How to create node set from values - xslt

Question

How can we create a node set from values....
I have n numbers 1,2,3.......n.
I want to create a node set
<MYNMUMS>
<MYNUM>1</MYNUM>
<MYNUM>2</MYNUM>
<MYNUM>3</MYNUM>
<MYNUM>4</MYNUM>
....
<MYNUM>N</MYNUM>
</MYNMUMS>

Answer 1

As easy as that:
XSLT 1.0 solution:
This transformation:
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<MyNums>
<xsl:call-template name="generateNumNodes">
<xsl:with-param name="pStart" select="1"/>
<xsl:with-param name="pEnd" select="10"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</MyNums>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="generateNumNodes">
<xsl:param name="pStart"/>
<xsl:param name="pEnd"/>
<xsl:if test="$pEnd >= $pStart">
<xsl:variable name="vNumNodes"
select="$pStart -$pEnd+1"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$vNumNodes = 1">
<MyNum><xsl:value-of select="$pStart"/></MyNum>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:variable name="vHalf" select=
"floor(($pStart+$pEnd) div 2)"/>
<xsl:call-template name="generateNumNodes">
<xsl:with-param name="pStart" select="$pStart"/>
<xsl:with-param name="pEnd" select="$vHalf"/>
</xsl:call-template>
<xsl:call-template name="generateNumNodes">
<xsl:with-param name="pStart" select="$vHalf+1"/>
<xsl:with-param name="pEnd" select="$pEnd"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
when applied on any XML document (not used), produces the desired output:
<MyNums>
<MyNum>1</MyNum>
<MyNum>2</MyNum>
<MyNum>3</MyNum>
<MyNum>4</MyNum>
<MyNum>5</MyNum>
<MyNum>6</MyNum>
<MyNum>7</MyNum>
<MyNum>8</MyNum>
<MyNum>9</MyNum>
<MyNum>10</MyNum>
</MyNums>
Do note the following:
The template generateNumNodes calls itself recursively.
This recursion is both time ( O(N) ), and space ( O(log2(N)) ) efficient and practically does overflow the stack -- no SO here!
The above feature is achieved by implementing the recursion in a DVC (DiVide and Conquer) style.
Unlike tail-recursion it will be successfully executed on any compliant XSLT processor.
The maximum recursion depth needed to generate 1000000 (one million numbers) is just 19.
XSLT 2.0 solution:
Even more elementary, no recursion, just using the XPath 2.0 to operator:
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
>
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<MyNums>
<xsl:for-each select="1 to 10">
<MyNums>
<xsl:sequence select="."/>
</MyNums>
</xsl:for-each>
</MyNums>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Answer 2

XSLT is a transformation language. It is usually used when you already have some data in the form of an XML document, that you wish to transform into a different document (that may or may not be in XML format).
For the task of starting with "raw" data and generating an XML representation, XSLT is not well-suited.
I suggest you look into different langauges to solve this.