Another xslt1 version (as for Dimitre's this works also in xslt2 as
written, with version="1.0" but if you make it version="2.0" and turn off
backward compatibilty mode, you get a type error).


<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output method="text"/>


<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:param name="optional.one" select="true()" />
  <xsl:param name="optional.two" select="true()" />
  <xsl:param name="optional.three" select="true()" />
  

  <xsl:value-of select="substring('1   1.702.253  ',
			1+4*($optional.one + $optional.two + $optional.three),
			4)"/>

</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>


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