I tried using the
  following way, but it doesn't work. 
  <xsl:if
  test="$entry/ancestor::tgroup/spanspec/[@spanname=$sn]/@align">
  .....
  </xsl:if>


That would work if $entry is a variable holding a node set that contains
nodes that are descendents of the tgroup element. Without seeing your
definition of entry there's not a lot else we can say.

David

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