How to show a character n times in XSLT?

Question

I have a template with a parameter. How can I insert a tab character n times?

n is the value of the parameter.

Answer 1

In XSLT 2.0:

<xsl:for-each select="1 to $count">&#x9;</xsl:for-each>

(Sadly though, I suspect that if you were using XSLT 2.0 you wouldn't need to ask the question).

Another technique often used with XSLT 1.0 is the hack:

<xsl:for-each select="//*[position() &lt;= $count]">&#x9;</xsl:for-each>

which works provided the number of elements in your source document is greater than the number of tab characters you want to output.

Answer 2

Just call it recursively; output a tab, then call the same template again with n-1 passed in, if n > 1.

<xsl:template name="repeat">
  <xsl:param name="output" />
  <xsl:param name="count" />
  <xsl:if test="$count &gt; 0">
    <xsl:value-of select="$output" />
    <xsl:call-template name="repeat">
      <xsl:with-param name="output" select="$output" />
      <xsl:with-param name="count" select="$count - 1" />
    </xsl:call-template>
  </xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

As has been pointed out, this example will actually output a minimum of one. In my experience where the output is whitespace, it's usually needed. You can adapt the principle of a recursive template like this any way you see fit.