File: Data.xml <colors> <color>red</color> <color>yellow</color> <color>blue</color> <!-- Next color element has whitespace content. --> <color></color> </colors> File: Transform.xslt <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"> <xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes" /> <xsl:strip-space elements="colors" /> <xsl:template match="@*|node()"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()" /> </xsl:copy> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> Output: <colors><color>red</color><color>yellow</color><color>blue</color><!-- Next color element has whitespace content. --><color/></colors>