starts-with() expects a string as its argument; if you give it a node-set
containing more than one node, XPath 1.0 will take the string value of the
first node (XPath 2.0 will throw an error).

Write select="/root/a[d[starts-with(d1, $letter)]]" />

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Smith [mailto:andrew.smith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 20 February 2006 16:47
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:  recursive node checking
> 
> Hello again,
> 
> I'm not sure if the subject is quite correct, but what I'm 
> trying to do
> is run a template on all the nodes where the 'd1's start with a given
> letter or letters, such as A or C (see the XML below).
> 
> The code I currently have is as follows
> 
> <xsl:variable name="letter" select="substring($string, $x, 1)" />
> 
> <xsl:apply-templates select="/root/a[starts-with(d/d1, $letter)]" />
> 
> $string is just a string of letters, like "AC", and using a slightly
> modified loop template I can step through it ($x is the position to
> get). The stepping is working, but it only seems to check the 
> first 'd'
> node, so in the XML below it would only check the letter against 'D1',
> 'C2' and 'A4'. Is there anyway I could get it to check 
> against the other
> nodes as well, since as it stands it won't select the first 'a' node
> which is should do.
> 
> <root>
> 	<a>
> 		<b>Bee</b>
> 		<c>Cee</c>
> 		<d>
> 			<d1>D1</d1>
> 		</d>
> 		<d>
> 			<d1>C2</d1>
> 		</d>
> 	</a>
> 	<a>
> 		<b>Bee</b>
> 		<c>Cee</c>
> 		<d>
> 			<d1>C2</d1>
> 		</d>
> 		<d>
> 			<d1>D3</d1>
> 		</d>
> 	</a>
> 	<a>
> 		<b>Bee</b>
> 		<c>Cee</c>
> 		<d>
> 			<d1>A4</d1>
> 		</d>
> 		<d>
> 			<d1>E3</d1>
> 		</d>
> 	</a>
> </root>
> 
> 
> Thanks
> Andy