<xsl:template name="fillcell">
  <xsl:value-of select="."/>
  <xsl:if test="not(string())">&#160;</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="cell">
  <td>
    <xsl:call-template name="fillcell"/>
  </td>
</xsl:template>

Cheers,
Wendell

At 02:50 PM 11/13/2002, you wrote:

<td>
  <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="string-length() &gt; 0"><xsl:value-of select="."
/></xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>&nbsp;</xsl:otherwise>
  </xsl:choose>
</td>

This gets monotonous after a while.  It would be nice if <xsl:value-of>
could take an attribute which would provide a default value if the select
produces an empty result!

  Make a template that does just that.
<xsl:template name="monotonous">
  <xsl:param name="str" select="." />
  <xsl:value-of select="$str" />
  <xsl:if test="string-length() = 0">
    <xsl:text>&nbsp;</xsl:text>
  </xsl:if>
</xsl:call-template>

and then you have

<td>
  <xsl:call-template name="monotonous" />
</td>

I don't think you need to explicitly pass the parameter because of the default value, but play with it to make sure. You may need to include the line
<xsl:with-param name="str" select="." />
but I hope not.

======================================================================
Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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