java - How to preserve Empty XML Tags after XSLT - prevent collapsing them from <B></B> to <B/>

Question

Say I have a very simple XML with an empty tag 'B':

<Root>
  <A>foo</A>
  <B></B>
  <C>bar</C>
</Root>

I'm currently using XSLT to remove a few tags, like 'C' for example:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:output method="xml" indent="no" encoding="utf-8" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />

<xsl:template match="*">
    <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:copy-of select="@*" />
        <xsl:apply-templates />
    </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="C" />

</xsl:stylesheet>

So far OK, but the problem is I end up having an output like this:

<Root>
  <A>foo</A>
  <B/>
</Root>

when I actually really want:

<Root>
  <A>foo</A>
  <B></B>
</Root>

Is there a way to prevent 'B' from collapsing?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Ok, so here what worked for me:

<xsl:output method="html">