xpath expression with fallback if no match is found

Hi!

I have this statement which selects a element in the input xml.
<xsl:value-of select="abc:def/optionalelement"/>

The element is optional. So I am looking for a conditional statement which selects the element if it exists and returns the a default string otherwise.

This snippet should work, but abc:def/optionalelement must be evaluated twice. :-( 
(the actual xpath expression is more complicated)

<xsl:choose>
	<xsl:when test="abc:def/date">
		<xsl:value-of select="abc:def/date"/>
	</xsl:when>
	<xsl:other>0000-00-00</xsl:other>
</xsl:choose>

Any ideas?

Regards,
Sebastian



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