> does anyone know a short expression that returns true if two nodes
> ($first1 and $first2) are of the same type?

It's not exactly short, but I'd be inclined to do:

<xsl:template match="/" mode="type">root</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*" mode="type">element</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="@*" mode="type">attribute</xsl:template>
etc

and then
<xsl:variable name="type1">
   <xsl:apply-templates select="$first1" mode="type"/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="type2">
   <xsl:apply-templates select="$first2" mode="type"/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:if test="$type1=$type2">...</xsl:if>

Mike Kay


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