String.Replace() in XSLT

Here's a sample template that lets you have the String.Replace() functionality in XSLT 1.0. The template "string-replace-all" takes 3 parameters and recursively processes the input text string.

text : main string
replace : the string fragment to be replaced
by : the replacement string

xsl:template name\="string-replace-all"\
    xsl:param name\="text" /
    xsl:param name\="replace" /
    xsl:param name\="by" /
    xsl:choose\
      xsl:when test\="contains($text, $replace)"\
        xsl:value-of select\="substring-before($text,$replace)" /
        xsl:value-of select\="$by" /
        xsl:call-template name\="string-replace-all"\
          <xsl:with-param name="text"
          select="substring-after($text,$replace)" />
          xsl:with-param name\="replace" select\="$replace" /
          xsl:with-param name\="by" select\="$by" /
        </xsl:call-template>
      </xsl:when>
      xsl:otherwise\
        xsl:value-of select\="$text" /
      </xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
  </xsl:template>

Here's how it is called:

  xsl:variable name\="myVar"\
    xsl:call-template name\="string-replace-all"\
      xsl:with-param name\="text" select\="'This is a sample text : {ReplaceMe} and {ReplaceMe}'" /
      xsl:with-param name\="replace" select\="'{ReplaceMe}'" /
      xsl:with-param name\="by" select\="'String.Replace() in XSLT'" /
    </xsl:call-template>
  </xsl:variable>

(Edit : Thanks to Marky and granadaCoder for typing out the xslt code in the comments.)

The resulting value of $myVar after {ReplaceMe} is replaced is "This is a sample text : String.Replace() in XSLT and String.Replace() in XSLT"

For those who are not familiar with XSLT syntax and here's the C# equivalent. An excellent material for the thedailywtf! :)

xsl str replaceCallingCSharpTWF

(Note: I'm not so sure, but I think in XSL 2.0 there is already a built-in replace function on strings)

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