How can I copy all children of an element EXCEPT one element? I studied a few examples but that solution does not work apparently in my case.

Example input:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<company>
    <staff attrib="select" id="1001">
        <name>should-1</name>
        <role>copy-1</role>
    </staff>
    <staff id="1002">
        <name>should-3</name>
        <role>not-copy-3</role>
    </staff>
    <staff attrib="select" id="1003">
        <name>should-2</name>
        <role>copy-2</role>
    </staff>
</company>

Expected output: so, <role> excluded:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<staff attrib="select" id="1001">
    <name>should-1</name>
</staff>
<staff id="1002">
    <name>should-3</name>
</staff>
<staff attrib="select" id="1003">
    <name>should-2</name>
</staff>

My XSLT script: with a number of 'tries' without any success.

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
            xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xml" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes"/>

<!-- try 1 --> 
<xsl:template match="/company/staff/role" />

<!-- try 2 --> 
<xsl:template match="role" />

<!-- try 3 --> 
<xsl:template match="//role" />

<xsl:template match="/company">
    <parent>
        <xsl:copy-of select="staff"/>
    </parent>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

CodePudding user response：

You could do it like this:

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

  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
  
  <!-- Remove all role elements -->
  <xsl:template match="role"/>
  
  <!-- Identity transform -->
  <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>
  
</xsl:stylesheet>

The identity transform copies everything, and the role template catches all role elements and does nothing with them, effectively removing them.

See it working here: https://xsltfiddle.liberty-development.net/3N7DtjK