> >I have a sequence of strings which are all 'ok' or 'fail' where I
> >want to force the case of all of them.
>
> Actually, it looks like you have a sequence of nodes in
> $states, not strings.

Ah yes.  Actually I did know that (no really).  I just didn't state
It properly.

> >Can anyone suggest how I might process my sequence to return a
> >sequence but have each entry passed through lower-case.
>
> $states/lower-case(normalize-space(column[7]))

Thank you, done that.  Seems to be working.

> I remind my students in class that the "/" in "$nodes/expr" is an
> abbreviation for:
>
>    for $n in $nodes return expr($n)
>
> ... which is exactly what you did in setting your first variable.  I
> just took it one step further.

I realized I could get the column data via normalize-space.  I just didn't
spot that I could just add the lower-case there.


> >I thought maybe I could pass it as a parameter to a moded
> >apply-templates, but then I get warned that select needs a node, not
> >a string, as its @select attribute.
>
> That shouldn't be necessary if the input is as simple as you imply.

It wasn't, and it is.

> >Subsequently I do distinct-values on it and the result of that I
> >want only to contain 'ok' or 'fail', with no case variations
> remaining.
>
> The sequence above would be satisfactory input to distinct-values().

It was.

>
> I hope this helps.

Very much so.
XSLT is very much about how to look at what you've got.
And especially about sequences.

> . . . . . . . . . Ken

Richard.