> note that the supplied solution only works for a and b elements
> _between_ item elements (exactly as you asked). A and B elements before
> the first item will be ignored.

No, Martin's and my solution do report "<a/>" before the first
<item>, see output taken from my last posting on this.
Perhaps that output shuld have been printed out in order
"<a/><item>...</item>" to avoid the confusion.


$ xsltproc pre.xsl list.xml


<item>...</item><a/>

<item>...</item><b/><b/><a/>
<item>...</item>

<item>...</item><a/><a/>

$

Mit besten Gruessen / Best wishes,

Hermann Stamm-Wilbrandt
Developer, XML Compiler, L3
Fixpack team lead
WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliances
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From:       Ruud Grosmann <r.grosmann@xxxxxx>
To:         xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date:       09/16/2010 03:12 PM
Subject:    Re:  Preceding siblings test



On 09/14/10 19:28, Hintz, David wrote:
> Thanks, Martin and Hermann.  That looks like it will do the trick.  I
forgot to state that we're using XSLT 2.
>
Hi David,

note that the supplied solution only works for a and b elements
_between_ item elements (exactly as you asked). A and B elements before
the first item will be ignored.

regards, Ruud