On Thu, 2005-08-04 at 16:43 +0100, ADAM PATRICK wrote:
> <root>
>         <item>
>                 <blah>TEXT</blah>
>                 <blah>TEXT</blah>
>                 <blah>TEXT</blah>
>                 <blah>STOP</blah>
>                 <blah>TEXT</blah>
>                 <blah>TEXT</blah>
>         </item>
> </root>
> i want to apply a template to all <blah> nodes before
> the text STOP appears after that I do not want to
> apply the template in the <blah> node.
> i believe the rough answer is to do with XPATH and
> setting the template match correctly using
> preceding-sibling
> but can't quite work it out...
> any help appreciated.

The following template matches the blah elements you DO want to process
(xpath 2.0):

<xsl:template match="blah[not((preceding-sibling::*|.)='STOP')]"/>

sdc