Reverse Transform XML with XSLT

[Gibson]

Hi all,

i transform xml A to xml B with an xslt.
Is it possible to use that xslt to tranform xml B to xml A?
Or exist tools to create a corresponding xslt B from the original xslt?
Thanks for help.

regards
gibson

[Bjoern Hoehrmann]

* Gibson wrote in microsoft.public.dotnet.xml:

i transform xml A to xml B with an xslt.
Is it possible to use that xslt to tranform xml B to xml A?

For some transformations this is possible, but I am not aware of tools
that do that and in many cases you'd need more information about the
input and output formats to generate usable results. Consider a simple
example like <xsl:value-of select = '$a + $b' />, if you don't know a
or b there might be billions of solutions, so you'd probably have to
change the requirements to a transformation such that applying the XSLT
to the output would be equivalent to the generated xml B; but even for
that I'm unaware of existing tools.
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[Chris Lovett]

Generally no. XSLT is so powerful that this is almost as hard as
transforming the output of your C# program back to it's original inputs!!

But certain types of XSLT transforms that preserve all the data in A a
reverse transform should be possible.

What are you building? I'm curious whether this is a runtime component or a
tool that needs this capability.

"Gibson" <gi****@nurfuerspam.de> wrote in message
news:11**********************@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...

Hi all,

i transform xml A to xml B with an xslt.
Is it possible to use that xslt to tranform xml B to xml A?
Or exist tools to create a corresponding xslt B from the original xslt?
Thanks for help.

regards
gibson