if you know that there will always be 4 sub-elements then you can do

<xsl:variable name="last-group"
select="substring-after(substring-after(substring-after(elem, '.'),
'.'), '.')" />

Francis.

yan bai wrote:
> 
> I have an element like:
> <elem>xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxx.1234</elem>
> 
> I know substring-before() will read the value before
> the first '.'.
> 
> I wonder how I can read the value after the last '.',
> namely 1234.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Yan
> 
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