<xsl:function name="my:index-of" as="xs:integer*">
    <xsl:param name="seq" as="node()*"/>
    <xsl:param name="nodes-in-question" as="node()*"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="index-of(
                            for $s in $seq
                              return generate-id($s),
                            for $n in $nodes-in-question
                              return generate-id($n)
                          )"/>
  </xsl:function>

Hi folks,

if a sequence stored in a variable consists of elements, we can not use the nice function index-of().

Also, if the variable is typed as="element()*" I cannot use the axes preceding-sibling or following-sibling. I can solve that by not typing the variable or use as="document-node()" after adding <xsl:document> to the variable's sequence constructor.

My current solution finding the position of the first <h1> in a sequence would be something like:

count($seq/h1[1]/preceding-sibling::*) + 1

with $seq being a sequence typed as document-node().

Are there better methods to get the position of a certain element in the sequence?

In my scenario I collect a certain set of elements using xsl:copy-of and want to process them in the context of that sequence (regarding position) and not in the context of their original document location.

Thanks a lot for any pointers,

- Michael