# File lib/xtemplate/xpath.rb, line 253
      def strip(val)
        case val
        when Hash
          if( val[TextNode] )
            newval = val.dup()
            newval[TextNode] = newval[TextNode].strip()
          else
            newval = val
          end
        when Array
          newval = val.reject{|v|
            case v
            when Hash, Array
              false
            else
              v.to_s() =~ /\A\s*\z/
            end
          }
        else
          newval = val.to_s().strip()
          if( newval.size == 0 )
            newval = nil
          end
        end
        newval
      end