Mailer Mailer <maillistboxes@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
...
> <xsl:template name="mytemplate">
>   <xsl:param name="contextnode"/>
>      <xsl:for-each select="$contextnode">
>       <xsl:variable name="cnt"
>           select="count(preceding-sibling::$contextnode[@name='data'])"/>

Try
  select="count($contextnode/preceding-sibling::*[@name='data'])"/>

It may be necessary to add more restrictions, like
  select="count($contextnode/preceding-sibling::*[name()=name($contextnode) and @name='data'])"/>

HTH
J.Pietschmann

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list