Andrew Welch wrote:
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <root>
>   <para0>
>     <para>para 0</para>
>     <subpara1>
>       <para>subpara 1</para>
>       <subpara2>
>         <para>subpara 2</para>
>         <subpara3>
>           <para>subpara 3</para>
>         </subpara3>
>       </subpara2>
>     </subpara1>
>   </para0>
> </root>
> 
> Each subpara is a child of the preceding subpara, up to para0 which is
> the top level. The nested element will always be the last child of the
> parent.  Now the structure I would like is more flat, like this:
> 
> <root>
>   <para0>
>     <para>para 0</para>
>   </para0>
>   <subpara1>
>     <para>subpara1</para>
>   </subpara1>
>   <subpara2>
>     <para>subpara2</para>
>   </subpara2>
>   ...and so on
> </root>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="root">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="para0|*[starts-with(local-name(),'subpara')]">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:copy-of select="para"/>
    </xsl:copy>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="para|text()"/>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Alternatively, you can ditch the last template and replace the
<xsl:apply-templates/> in the 2nd template with
<xsl:apply-templates select="*[starts-with(local-name(),'subpara')]"/>

   - Mike
____________________________________________________________________________
  mike j. brown                   |  xml/xslt: http://skew.org/xml/
  denver/boulder, colorado, usa   |  resume: http://skew.org/~mike/resume/

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