> how can I address the <FIRST>a1</FIRST> element of the first 
> <ROW> while processing the <FIRST>a1</FIRST> element of the 
> SECOND <ROW>

Many different ways, it all depends how general you want your code to be.
For example

/ROWSET/ROW[1]/FIRST for an absolute reference
or
../preceding-sibling::ROW[1]/FIRST to get the immediately preceding row


Mike Kay

> 


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