XSLT otherwise block does not execute

Question

XML

<Categories>
  <category>
    <blog>ABC</blog>
    <link>open</link>
    <link1>close</link1>
  </category>
</Categories>

XSLT

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="2.0">
<xsl:template match="category">

  <xsl:variable name="openCloseValidation">
     <xsl:value-of select="link" />

  </xsl:variable>

    <xsl:variable name="holidayValidation">
     <xsl:value-of select="link1" />

  </xsl:variable>

    <h1><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space($openCloseValidation)" /></h1>
    <h1><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space($holidayValidation)" /></h1>

    <xsl:choose>
      <xsl:when test="contains($openCloseValidation, 'open')">
        <xsl:if test="not(contains($holidayValidation, 'close'))">
          <xsl:value-of select="'true'" />
        </xsl:if>
      </xsl:when>

      <xsl:otherwise>
        <xsl:value-of select="'false'" />
      </xsl:otherwise>

  </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

the first condition does not satisfy but it doesn't go in to otherwise block and display false.

Can you let me know if something is wrong here?

Answer 1

The first xsl:when condition is satisfied, as contains($openCloseValidation, 'open') is true. But within your xsl:when you have an xsl:if and if that fails, then nothing will get output.

You should rewrite it as this....

<xsl:choose>
  <xsl:when test="contains($openCloseValidation, 'open') and not(contains($holidayValidation, 'close'))">
      <xsl:value-of select="'true'" />
  </xsl:when>
  <xsl:otherwise>
    <xsl:value-of select="'false'" />
  </xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

As an aside, it is much better to write your variable declarations like so...

<xsl:variable name="openCloseValidation" select="link" />