>>       <xsl:sort select="." />

>

>there is only one table  so xsl:sort is doing nothing



> Right, the full XML used as input has many, I neglected to mention

But  . there selects the concatenation of the character data of the
entire table element's descendants
is that what you what to sort on?


> the for-each's current value, I am not clear on how to leverage current() to facilliatte that?

Just use current() not . in the expression you had.

(It would probably be more efficient yo use xsl:key but get it working
before optimising)

David