I think the cleanest separation of concerns would be to have a function that
takes a sequence of numbers as input (e.g. (1,2,3,8,9,10)) and produces a
string as output, e.g. "1-3, 8-10". That would have a signature

<xsl:function name="xxx" as="xs:string">
  <xsl:param name="numbers" as="xs:integer*"/>

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bruce D'Arcus [mailto:bdarcus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 14 December 2004 15:45
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re:  number collapsing
> 
> 
> On Dec 14, 2004, at 10:30 AM, Michael Kay wrote:
> 
> > It's better to document the function's
> > expectations by putting "as" attributes on the xsl:param elements.
> 
> So you're saying I should do the castable test on the 
> template that is 
> calling the function, and only call it if the value is castable as an 
> integer, and then do this?
> 
>    <xsl:function name="bib:number-condense">
>      <xsl:param name="begin" as="xs:integer"/>
>      <xsl:param name="end" as="xs:integer"/>
> 
> Bruce