Whenever you need a "HashTable" or "Dictionary" or "Map", try to use keys:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:m="my:Months">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
 <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

 <m:Months>
  <m name="jan" mid="1"/>
  <m name="feb" mid="2"/>
  <m name="mar" mid="3"/>
  <m name="apr" mid="4"/>
  <m name="may" mid="5"/>
  <m name="jun" mid="6"/>
  <m name="jul" mid="7"/>
  <m name="aug" mid="8"/>
  <m name="sep" mid="9"/>
  <m name="oct" mid="10"/>
  <m name="nov" mid="11"/>
  <m name="dec" mid="12"/>
 </m:Months>

 <xsl:key name="kIdFromName" match="@mid"
          use="../@name"/>

 <xsl:variable name="vUpper" select=
 "'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'"/>

 <xsl:variable name="vLower" select=
 "'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'"/>

 <xsl:template match="node()|@*">
  <xsl:copy>
   <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/>
  </xsl:copy>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="m/text()">
  <xsl:variable name="vCur" select="."/>
  <xsl:for-each select="document('')">
  <xsl:value-of select=
   "key('kIdFromName',
        translate($vCur,$vUpper,$vLower)
        )"/>
  </xsl:for-each>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

when this XSLT 1.0 transformation ()as you indicated you are limited
to XSLT 1.0)  is applied on the following document:

<t>
 <m>Mar</m>
 <m>Jun</m>
 <m>Aug</m>
 <m>Oct</m>
 <m>May</m>
 <m>Jan</m>
 <m>Dec</m>
 <m>Nov</m>
 <m>Sep</m>
 <m>Jul</m>
 <m>Feb</m>
 <m>Apr</m>
</t>

the wanted, correct result is produced:

<t>
   <m>3</m>
   <m>6</m>
   <m>8</m>
   <m>10</m>
   <m>5</m>
   <m>1</m>
   <m>12</m>
   <m>11</m>
   <m>9</m>
   <m>7</m>
   <m>2</m>
   <m>4</m>
</t>


--
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
---------------------------------------
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk
-------------------------------------
Never fight an inanimate object
-------------------------------------
You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what
you're doing is work or play
-------------------------------------
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
-------------------------------------
I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.




On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 2:28 PM, Hank Ratzesberger <hankr@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I know that XSLT code can be a verbose, but often enough I
> find that it's because I'm not using the language as
> intended, so I'm asking for your thoughts.
>
> I'm having some problems with constructs like hash tables or
> indexes, which are quick in other languages but presently I
> am using some brute force with. B E.G.
>
>
> <xsl:template name="month-of">
> B <xsl:param name="mon"/>
> B  B <xsl:choose>
> B  B  B <xsl:when test="lower-case($mon) = 'jan'">
> B  B  B  B <xsl:value-of select="'01'"/>
> B  B  B </xsl:when>
> B  B  B <xsl:when test="lower-case($mon) = 'feb'">
> B  B  B  B <xsl:value-of select="'02'"/>
> B  B  B </xsl:when>
> B  B  B <xsl:when test="lower-case($mon) = 'mar'">
> B  B  B  B <xsl:value-of select="'03'"/>
> B  B  B </xsl:when>
>
> It seems there must be a way to accomplish this with
> a simple sequence. Months of the year, days of the
> week, and other one to one translations from the
> textual to ordinal or vice versa.
>
> Cheers,
> Hank
>
> --
> Louis (Hank) Ratzesberger
> sopac.ucsd.edu