Cannot produce the ampersand character in an output ile

Question

We are using DBMS_XMLQuery to select some stuff from thedatabase (8.1.7) and output as XML in a CLOB.
We pass transform this CLOB to a text output file (not html) by passing the above result to the xmlparser package.
Our stylesheet looks like
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/" >
testing
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
OK, we're just trying to get anything to appear!!!
Obviously this fails. Replacing ampersand with 'ampersand amp;' causes hash number tobe output (38 I think).
I'd really like to get an ampersand out the end of this.
I have tried enclosing the ampersand amp; in <xsl:text> - no good
<xsl:text disable-output-beffering> - no good
I've tried CDATA, using <xsl:output type="text" /> at the start of the stylesheet, all to no avail.
I've searched this forum, lots of similar questions but no relevant answer (I'm new to this stuff).
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

Apologies for replying to my own posting (although I would greatly appreciate someones elses reply), I decided to try out oraxsl from the unix command line. Sure enough, it output the ampersand as an ampersand and not a code. Therefore, I must have something wrong in the plsql code that sets up the parser.
Heres the code - I think we got it from the online docs. I've chopped out the comments and debug, hopefully I didnt chop out any code :)
PROCEDURE gen_file(dir varchar2, p_clob clob, xslfile varchar2, resfile varchar2, errfile varchar2) is
p xmlparser.Parser;
xmldoc xmldom.DOMDocument;
xmldocnode xmldom.DOMNode;
proc xslprocessor.Processor;
ss xslprocessor.Stylesheet;
xsldoc xmldom.DOMDocument;
docfrag xmldom.DOMDocumentFragment;
docfragnode xmldom.DOMNode;
xslelem xmldom.DOMElement;
nspace varchar2(50);
xslcmds xmldom.DOMNodeList;
begin
-- new parser
p := xmlparser.newParser;
xmlparser.setValidationMode(p, FALSE);
xmlparser.setErrorLog(p, dir &#0124; &#0124; '/' &#0124; &#0124; errfile);
xmlparser.setPreserveWhiteSpace(p, TRUE);
xmlparser.setBaseDir(p, dir);
xmlparser.parseclob(p, p_clob);
xmldoc := xmlparser.getDocument(p);
xmlparser.parse(p, dir &#0124; &#0124; '/' &#0124; &#0124; xslfile);
xsldoc := xmlparser.getDocument(p);
xslelem := xmldom.getDocumentElement(xsldoc);
nspace := xmldom.getNamespace(xslelem);
xmldom.getExpandedName(xslelem));
xslcmds := xmldom.getChildrenByTagName(xslelem, '*', nspace);
ss := xslprocessor.newStylesheet(xsldoc, dir &#0124; &#0124; '/' &#0124; &#0124; xslfile);
proc := xslprocessor.newProcessor;
xslprocessor.showWarnings(proc, true);
xslprocessor.setErrorLog(proc, dir &#0124; &#0124; '/' &#0124; &#0124; errfile);
docfrag := xslprocessor.processXSL(proc, ss, xmldoc);
docfragnode := xmldom.makeNode(docfrag);
xmldom.writeToFile(docfragnode, dir &#0124; &#0124; '/' &#0124; &#0124; resfile);
-- deal with exceptions
exception
when xmldom.INDEX_SIZE_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'Index Size error');
when xmldom.DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'String Size error');
when xmldom.HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'Hierarchy request error');
when xmldom.WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'Wrong doc error');
when xmldom.INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'Invalid Char error');
when xmldom.NO_DATA_ALLOWED_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'Nod data allowed error');
when xmldom.NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'No mod allowed error');
when xmldom.NOT_FOUND_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'Not found error');
when xmldom.NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'Not supported error');
when xmldom.INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR then
raise_application_error(-20120, 'In use attr error');
end gen_file;
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