XSL if else Condition

Long ago I had a requirement to work with XML, where eventually I got a need to apply stylesheet for them. I am sharing my experience on how I implemented XSL if else condition by using choose and otherwise elements.

Requirement: Check whether a node has attributes or it has a string.

Example showing : One of the nodes has 0 File(s) found and the other has attributes such as

<autoincludesystem_info mdate='08/23/2011' mtime='09:51' ampm='PM' filesize='64' filename='AFP_p.tgp' />

Below is a sample of two nodes

<product>

	<autoIncludeUser>0 File(s) found</autoIncludeUser>

	<autoIncludeSystem>
		<autoincludesystem_info mdate='08/23/2011' mtime='09:51' ampm='PM' filesize='64' filename='AFP_p.tgp' />
		<autoincludesystem_info mdate='08/23/2011' mtime='09:51' ampm='PM' filesize='3,879' filename='AnalystsExpressionMacros.tgp' />
		<autoincludesystem_info mdate='08/23/2011' mtime='09:51' ampm='PM' filesize='475' filename='base64Converter.tgp' />
		<autoincludesystem_info mdate='08/23/2011' mtime='09:51' ampm='PM' filesize='<DIR>' filename='codePages' />
	</autoIncludeSystem>

	<autoIncludeStudio>0 File(s) found</autoIncludeStudio>

	<externalLibrarySystem>
		<externalLibrarySystem_info mdate='08/23/2011' mtime='09:52' ampm='PM' filesize='196,608' filename='AFPtoXML_DP.dll' />
		<externalLibrarySystem_info mdate='08/23/2011' mtime='09:52' ampm='PM' filesize='13,259' filename='ASN1toXSDRunner.jar' />
	</externalLibrarySystem>

</product>

How would I identify if a node has just strings or attributes and based on that how can I get the values either String or attribute respectively.

Solution: This is how we can achieve XSL if else condition.

<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="something to test">
 
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
 
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

So here is what I ended up doing

<h3>System</h3>
<xsl:choose>
	<xsl:when test="autoIncludeSystem/autoincludesystem_info/@mdate"> <!-- if attribute exists-->

		<dd>
			<table border="1">
				<tbody>
					<tr>
						<th>File Name</th>
						<th>File Size</th>
						<th>Date</th>
						<th>Time</th>
						<th>AM/PM</th>
					</tr>
					<xsl:for-each select="autoIncludeSystem/autoincludesystem_info">
						<tr>
							<td valign="top" ><xsl:value-of select="@filename"/></td>
							<td valign="top" ><xsl:value-of select="@filesize"/></td>
							<td valign="top" ><xsl:value-of select="@mdate"/></td>
							<td valign="top" ><xsl:value-of select="@mtime"/></td>
							<td valign="top" ><xsl:value-of select="@ampm"/></td>
						</tr>
					</xsl:for-each></tbody>
			</table>
		</dd>

	</xsl:when>
	<xsl:otherwise> <!-- if attribute does not exists -->
		<dd>
			<pre>
				<xsl:value-of select="autoIncludeSystem"/>

			</pre>
		</dd>

	</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

Output:

I am not saying that this is the best way to solve, but this is how I implemented XSL If Else condition.