> Is there something different about holding the temporary tree in memory
> to process it, as opposed to selecting from a static file?

No, but you didn't build a tree (that is a single / node  with one or
more element children) you built a sequence of elements. As the elements
do not share a parent, match patterns do not work they way you want.

the <xsl:variable name="tmp-table" as="element()+">
  <!-- build the data -->
</xsl:variable>


remove the as="element()*" then instead of a sequence of elementss
you'll build a document node (/) and the elements will be children of
that node.

David

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