You could try something like:

<periodicals>
<xsl:for-each select="//tr[position()!=1]">
<periodical>
<subject><xsl:value-of select="preceding::b[1]"/></subject>
<description><xsl:value-of select="preceding::i[1]"/></description>
<title><xsl:value-of select="td[1]"/></title>
<author><xsl:value-of select="td[2]"/></author>
<length><xsl:value-of select="td[3]"/></length>
</periodical>
</xsl:for-each>
</periodicals>




> -----Original Message-----
> From: McKisson, Shawn [mailto:mckisss@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 02 August 1999 16:31
> To: 'xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
> Subject: RE: XSL problem
> 
> 
> Oops I have taken too literally - I apoligize for not 
> describing the problem
> a little better.
> To be more concrete, I need to parse through well formed HTML.
> I have an structure that looks like the following:
> 
> <hr><p><b> Periodical Subject </b></p></hr>
> <i> Peridocal Subject Desc <i>
> <table>
>   <tr>
>     <th> garbage text </th>
>     <th> more garbage text </th>
>     <th> even more junk </th>
>   </tr>
>   <tr>
>     <td> Periodical Title </td>
>     <td> Periodical Author (assume to be a single element) </td>
>     <td> Periodical length (in pages) </td>
>   </tr>
>   <tr>
>     <td> Periodical Title </td>
>     <td> Periodical Author (assume to be a single element) </td>
>     <td> Periodical length (in pages) </td>
>   </tr>
>   <tr>
> 
>     <td> Periodical Title </td>
>     <td> Periodical Author (assume to be a single element) </td>
>     <td> Periodical length (in pages) </td>
>   </tr>
>   <tr>
>     <td> Periodical Title </td>
>     <td> Periodical Author (assume to be a single element) </td>
>     <td> Periodical length (in pages) </td>
>   </tr>
> </table>
> .
> .
> <the entire block appears here again, with a different 
> subject until all the
> subject are exhausted>
> 
> 
> What I need to turn this into is
> 
> <periodical-list>
>   <periodical>
>     <subject> Periodical Subject </subject>
>     <desc> Periodical Subject Desc </desc>
>     <title> Periodical Title </title>
>     <author> Periodical Author </author>
>     <length> Periodical Length </length>
>   </periodical>
> 
>   <periodical>
>     AND SO ON UNTIL ALL PERIODICAL SUBJECTS AND PERIODICALS 
> ARE EXHAUSTED
>   </periodical>
> </periodical-list>
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Carlisle [mailto:davidc@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Friday, July 30, 1999 5:44 PM
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: XSL problem
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > <Xn>
> 
> is that _really_ what you want with dynamically generated 
> element names.
> You can have that if that's what you want, but it is immoral, 
> you should
> be asking for at least <X num="n">
> 
> David
> 
> 
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
> 
> 
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
> 


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