Given this XML chunk:
  <TEXT>sldj aldj aldj a</TEXT>
  <REPORT>12345</REPORT>

  How can I apply templates and have the REPORT appear
  before the TEXT in the results of the transformation?

If in the template for the parent you go
<xsl:apply-templates/>
Then nodes will be applied in document order.
There are various ways to change that depending what you want to happen
in general, eg

<xsl:apply-templates select="REPORT"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="TEXT"/>

would process REPORT then TEXT and ignore everything else

<xsl:apply-templates select="REPORT"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(self::REPORT)]"/>

would process REPORT elements first then any other elements

<xsl:apply-templates>
 <xsl:sort select="name()"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>

would process elements in alphabetic order.


Any of these has the requested effect on your small example of
processing REPORT then TEXT.

David


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