[xquery-talk] Whitespace problem in CSV-like output

[Yves Forkl]

Hi,

from a very simple XML input, I would like to create a CSV-like output, 
putting each record (as I see them) in a line of its own, with its 
fields separated by some delimiter like a semicolon.

It works quite well, except that a space gets inserted at the front of 
each line starting from the second line in the output.

My demo input is:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<list>
   <entry>
     <property1>A</property1>
     <property2>33</property2>
     <quantity>1,5</quantity>
   </entry>
   <entry>
     <property1>A</property1>
     <property2>33</property2>
     <quantity>0,5</quantity>
   </entry>
   <entry>
     <property1>B</property1>
     <property2>22</property2>
     <quantity>0,5</quantity>
   </entry>
</list>

My XQuery file has:

declare namespace saxon="http://saxon.sf.net/";
declare option saxon:output "method=text";

let $entries := /list/entry

for $property1 in distinct-values($entries/property1),
     $property2 in distinct-values($entries[property1 = 
$property1]/property2)
   let $selected_entries := $entries[property1 = $property1 and
                                            property2 = $property2]
   order by $property1, $property2
   return(
     concat(
       string-join(
         ($property1, $property2,
          replace(xs:string(
                    sum(for $quantity in $selected_entries/quantity
                        return xs:decimal(replace($quantity, ",", ".")))),
                  "\.",
                  ",")),
         ";"),
       "&#10;"))

The result as obtained with Saxon 8.8.0.4J is:

A;33;2
  B;22;0,5

It is the space at the beginning of the second line that I can't get 
away with. Can you explain what I am doing wrong here and maybe suggest 
a solution?

(Another question: Within my "quantity" elements, I use the German 
decimal separator which is a comma. Is there a more elegant way than 
translating it to a dot and back, like above, when summing up the values 
found in this element?)

   Yves