Here's one way to do it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="/">
    <out>
      <xsl:for-each select="data/element[not(number = following::number)]">
        <xsl:sort select="number"/>
        <xsl:variable name="this-number" select="number"/>
        <entry number="{$this-number}">
          <xsl:copy-of select="/data/element[number = $this-number]/name"/>
        </entry>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </out>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

I tested against the following data with Saxon and Xalan:

<data>
  <element>
    <name>Oscar</name>
    <number>1</number>
  </element>
  <element>
    <name>Mike</name>
    <number>1</number>
  </element>
  <element>
    <name>Bob</name>
    <number>2</number>
  </element>
  <element>
    <name>George</name>
    <number>2</number>
  </element>
  <element>
    <name>Tom</name>
    <number>3</number>
  </element>
  <element>
    <name>Dick</name>
    <number>3</number>
  </element>
  <element>
    <name>Harry</name>
    <number>3</number>
  </element>
</data>

It produced the following output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<out>
  <entry number="1">
    <name>Oscar</name>
    <name>Mike</name>
  </entry>
  <entry number="2">
    <name>Bob</name>
    <name>George</name>
  </entry>
  <entry number="3">
    <name>Tom</name>
    <name>Dick</name>
    <name>Harry</name>
  </entry>
</out>

I'm sure other ways exist.

Jay Bryant
Bryant Communication Services

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lassi Seppdld" <lsseppal@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 5:48 PM
Subject:  Need help with XSL and XPath


> Here's a simplified description of my problem:
>
> I've got an XML document with multiple entries of <element> as shown
> below. The <name>s are unique, but the <number> can be same for
> mulpitle entries of <element>. The XML document isn't sorted in anyway.
>
> <element>
> <name>name</name>
> <number>1</number>
> </element>
>
> Now I need the XSL stylesheet to print out something like this:
>
> number 1
> name1
> name4
> name7
>
> number 25
> name2
> name3
>
> number 100
> name5
> name6
>
> So each "number X" is only printed once and then all the <element>s
> that have the number X in the <number> tags are printed below that.
> Then the next biggest number is printed and so on.
>
> Any advice?
>
> --
> Lassi