Because "absolute paths" are not absolute at all: they select relative to
the root of the tree containing the context node. You've got to know which
document to look in.

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: andrew welch [mailto:andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 18 October 2005 16:28
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  Using absolute path when context item is an 
> atomic value xslt 2.0
> 
> If you do the following (contrived example):
> 
> <xsl:for-each select="1 to $max">
>     <xsl:apply-templates select="/root/somelem[.]"/>
> </xsl:for-each>
> 
> You get the error:
> 
>   XPTY0020: Cannot select a node here: the context item is an 
> atomic value
> Failed to compile stylesheet. 1 error detected.
> 
> Why can't I use an absolute path here -why does it matter what the
> context item is?
> 
> (I'm using Saxon 851b)