David,

>> I also have to use XML 1.0.
> I assume you mean xslt 1.

Yes, I did. I'm not quite fully awake yet.

Thanks for the more in-depth description of a variable too. And your
example:

>>You want the sum of all the colspan attributes that have a numeric
attribute plus the number of th elements without such an attribute

>> select="
>>   sum(th/@colspan[number(.)=number(.)])
>>    +
>>   count(th[not(@colspan) or not(@colspan[number(.)=number(.)])])
>>  "

Worked like a charm. And was much more efficent than my way. Thanks so
much.

-Joe