James,

the cheapest way to do this would be to count the length of each '@pos'.  If 
you can guarantee that there is only a single digit between each dot then a 
simple statement such as:

<xsl:variable name="rowspan" select="count(//ve/@pos[string-length(.) = 
7])"/>

would do the trick.  Another option would be:

<xsl:variable name="rowspan" 
select="count(//ve/@pos[string-length(substring-after(.,'.')) &gt;= 4])"/>

but if you are going to add additional function calls you might as well just 
do the following:

<xsl:variable name="rowspan" 
select="count(//ve/@pos[string-length(translate(.,'0123456789','')) = 3])"/>

the above strips out all the numbers leaving only the dots.  then a simple 
string-length test will tell you how many dots are left.

NOTE: changing your context node will allow you to decide which node to 
start your test with.

Best regards,

M.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "james walker" <jameswalkerandy@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 5:23 AM
Subject:  counting specific nodes


> given the xml
> <vs>
> <ve pos="1"></ve>
> <ve pos="1.1"></ve>
> <ve pos="1.1.1"></ve>
> <ve pos="1.1.1.1"></ve>
> <ve pos="1.1.1.2"></ve>
> <ve pos="1.1.1.3"></ve>
> <ve pos"1.2"></ve>
> <ve pos="1.2.1"></ve>
> <<ve pos="1.2.1.1"></ve>
> <ve pos="2"></ve>
> <ve pos="2.1"></ve>
> <ve pos="2.1.1"></ve>
> <ve pos="2.1.1.1"></ve>
> </vs>
>
> and given that i am starting on a node with pos=1 (or 2 or 3....), how do 
> i
> count the nodes which have position with 3 dots only (e.g. pos=1.1.2.1?) 
> and
> start with the current node position. I came up with something like this:
>
> <xsl:variable name="rowspan" select="count(ve[starts-with(@position,
> current()/@position) and contains(...........)])" />
> e.g. for position 1, it should be 4 (1.1.1.1 , 1.1.1.2, 1.1.1.3, 1.2.1.1)
>
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