Thanks much.  However, this solution only works if the string contains only
the integer,  parenthesis and space, i.e. without any other text.  In the
original question I asked if the string _starts with_ "#) " [#=some int].
In comparing this solution with David Carlisle's, his is the more general
case.
It was fun to work this out, though.  Thanks for both your efforts.  This
was a good way to increase my skill a little more. (Although now that the
solution is laid out in front of me, I see that half the solution was
staring me in the face as an example all along on page 562 of XSLT
Programmer's Reference, 2nd.  I just couldn't see how to put the two halves
together.)

And on the remote chance anyone is interested in why I wanted to know this:
My company had a number of outlines which were formatted in HTML.  Since at
that time we needed a list type of "#) followed_by_text" we had create a <ol
style="list-type: none"> and insert the counting numbers as I outlined.
Now, years later, we XHTML-ized the HTML, and are converting it to an
XML-based publishing paradigm, but we only need the content from those lines
not the "#) " at the start.  Now with this eloquent little check, when all
the <li> nodes are parsed the "#) " can be easily removed.  Thanks again.

   Matthew L. Avizinis <mailto:mla@xxxxxxxxx>
Gleim Publications, Inc.
   4201 NW 95th Blvd.
 Gainesville, FL 32606
(352)-375-0772 ext. 101
      www.gleim.com <http://www.gleim.com>


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Chris Bayes
> Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 8:14 PM
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE:  use of starts-with()
>
>
> > Correct?
> Maybe. Or
> starts-with(translate(.,'123456789','000000000'),substring('000000)',8 -
> string-length(.)))
>
> Ciao Chris
>
> XML/XSL Portal
> http://www.bayes.co.uk/xml
>


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