Oh my, so that's what // really means. 
:-) 
Very helpful. Thanks. My problem is solved.


--- On Mon, 9/15/08, Andrew Welch <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Andrew Welch <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re:  xpath numbering question
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Monday, September 15, 2008, 11:22 AM
> > I feat I am wracking my brains again on something
> simple.
> >
> > If my xml looks like this:
> >
> > <A>
> >  <B1>
> >    <C1>
> >    <C2>
> >    <C3>
> >  <B2>
> >    <C4>
> >    <C5>
> >    <C6>
> >  <B3>
> >    <C7>
> >    <C8>
> >    <C9>
> > </A>
> >
> > I am trying to access C nodes by position relative to
> root using xpath.
> >
> > For example, to get C9, this does not work: //C[
> position()=9 ]  //C[ 9 ]
> > presumably because the context to begin counting C
> nodes is the B node, and there are ony a maximum of 3 C
> nodes in that context.
> 
> Use:
> 
> /descendant::C[9]
> 
> or
> 
> (//C)[9]
> 
> read here for Wendell's and David's explanations to
> me the other day:
> 
> http://xsl.markmail.org/search/?q=%2Fdescendant#query:%2Fdescendant%20from%3A%22Andrew%20Welch%22%20order%3Adate-backward+page:1+mid:aiml76qzac2kzzzn+state:results
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Andrew Welch
> http://andrewjwelch.com
> Kernow: http://kernowforsaxon.sf.net/