> My process needs to take action on the first element in a list of 
> elements where the logic to determine first is the lowest 
> numeric value 
> of the sortorder attribute.  I don't believe there is a 
> one-line way to 
> do this - I believe the entire list must be sorted, and then the 
> position of each element after sort compared to determine if 
> it is first.

Yes. Even in XSLT 2.0 this may be the best approach. 2.0 offers min/max
functions, but they give you the highest/lowest value, not the node having
that value.

Writing a recursive template/function might give you better performance than
sorting (linear rather than n*log(n)). 

There is a one-line solution: $x[not($x/@sortorder < @sortorder)] but it's
quite likely to have poor (quadratic) performance.

You could consider using EXSLT math:highest() or math:lowest().

Or I'm sure there's something in Dimitre's box of tricks called FXSL.

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

> 
> Is there a shorter/less expensive way to code the following
> 
> <xsl:for-each select="item">
>    <xsl:sort select="@sortorder" data-type="number" />
>    <xsl:if test="position() = 1">
>      <!-- this is the first element in the sorted list -->
>    </xsl:if>
> </xsl:for-each>
> 
> I searched and found examples using this technique, but 
> nothing really 
> saying that this was the best or only approach.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
>     -John