I prefer to do this with variables:

<xsl:variable name="apos">'</xsl:variable>
<xsl:value-of select="concat($apos, 'Entering state: ',$sname, $apos)" />

Or of course you can do

<xsl:text>'Entering state: </xsl:text>
<xsl:value-of select="$sname" />
<xsl:text>'</xsl:text>

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Anna Svdling [mailto:anna.sodling@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 27 March 2009 08:51
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  Putting apostrophes around a string
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm putting together a string using this code snippet:
> <xsl:value-of select="concat('Entering state: ',$sname)" />
>
> Now, I would like to change the string by putting apostrophes
> around it so that the output is 'Entering state: name'
>
> Is it possible to do this and, in that case, how? I've tried
> with apostrophe and &apos; but didn't manage to get it to
> work in any of the different ways I used it.
> I'm using XSLT 1.0.
>
> Sincerely,
> Anna