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I have a modest amount of Perl experience but I have never used XSLT. My forehead is getting pretty sore from frequent encounters with the keyboard. I need to convert an XML file into CSV for input to another system. Various articles on the internet made XML::XSLT sound like just the ticket, but I haven't been able to make it work.

My XML file looks like this (only larger):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<WEATHER_DATA>
<HOUR_DATA>
<LOCATION_NAME>KCNU</LOCATION_NAME>
<CLC>20</CLC>
<DPT>73</DPT>
<HUM>82</HUM>
<HIX>84</HIX>
<DBT>79</DBT>
<WCH>79</WCH>
<WDR>210</WDR>
<WSP>17</WSP>
<EFFECTIVE_DATE>08/20/2007</EFFECTIVE_DATE>
<HOUR>14:00</HOUR>
<TIME_GENERATED>08/20/2007 09:45:00</TIME_GENERATED>
</HOUR_DATA>
<HOUR_DATA>
<LOCATION_NAME>KCOU</LOCATION_NAME>
<CLC>100</CLC>
<DPT>71</DPT>
<HUM>87</HUM>
<HIX>79</HIX>
<DBT>75</DBT>
<WCH>75</WCH>
<WDR>190</WDR>
<WSP>13</WSP>
<EFFECTIVE_DATE>08/20/2007</EFFECTIVE_DATE>
<HOUR>14:00</HOUR>
<TIME_GENERATED>08/20/2007 09:45:00</TIME_GENERATED>
</HOUR_DATA>
</WEATHER_DATA>
[download]

I need to transform it to CSV like this:

# relation, date, time, CloudCoverPct, DewPointF, Humidity, TempF, Win
+dDirection, WindMPH, HeatIndexF, WindChillF
KCNU.CHANUTE.KS,08/20/2007,14:00,20,73,82,79,210,17,84,79
KCOU.COLUMBIA.MO,08/20/2007,14:00,100,71,87,75,190,13,79,75
[download]

Note that the .csv columns are not in the same order as the tags in the .xml file and the site (a.k.a. relation) name will need to be expanded later.
I realize I will have to enhance the .xls file and add more logic in the script, but at this point, I have not even been able to get XML::XSLT->new() to work.

The skeletal beginning of my .xsl file (realizing it doesn't do everything yet) is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Tr
+ansform">
<xsl:output method="text"/>

<xsl:template match="WEATHER_DATA">
  <xsl:apply-templates select="HOUR_DATA"/>
</xsl:template

<xsl:template match="HOUR_DATA">
  <xsl:for-each select="*">
    <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    <xsl:if test="position() != last()">
      <xsl:value-of select="','"/>
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:for-each>
  <xsl:text>&#10;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
[download]

The skeletal beginning of my .pl script (realizing it doesn't do everything yet) is:

use strict;
use XML::XSLT;

my $xmlFilename = 'C:/Perldev/xslt/WEATHER_ACTUAL_20070820144516.XML';
my $xslFilename = 'C:/Perldev/xslt/StyleSheet2.xsl';
(my $outFilename = $xmlFilename) =~ s/\.xml$/\.csv/i;

my $xslt = XML::XSLT->new($xslFilename, warnings => 1);
my $result = $xslt->transform(XMLFile => $xmlFilename,
                              XSLFile => $xslFilename,
                              OutFile => $outFilename
                             );
[download]

The error it returns is:

Error while parsing:
no element found at line 1, column 0, byte -1 at C:/Perl/lib/XML/Parse
+r.pm line 187
[download]

What am I doing wrong?

In reply to Using XML::XSLT to convert XML to CSV by Photius

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