RE: breaking sorted material into subsections

Thanks Oliver.  That did the trick for me.  Now I have another question.
Since my XML was slightly different than Don's guess, after applying your
response to my structure, I have this:

  <xsl:template match="pages">
    <xsl:for-each select="//index[count(. | key('letters',
substring(@entry,1,1))[1]) = 1]">
    <xsl:sort select="@entry" />
    <xsl:variable name="initial" select="substring(@entry,1,1)" />
    <h2><xsl:value-of select="$initial" /></h2>
    <xsl:for-each select="key('letters', $initial)">
      <xsl:sort select="@entry" />
      <p><a href="{../@location}"><xsl:value-of select="@entry"/></a></p>
    </xsl:for-each>
    </xsl:for-each>
  </xsl:template>

This works quite nicely.  However, while I want a separate heading for each
letter, I might also have some index entries that begin with numbers or
symbols (@,#, etc.), in which case I'd really like to group all such items
together under one heading.  I'm thinking I want something like:

<xsl:template match="pages">
  <xsl:for-each select="//index[count(. | key('letters',
substring(@entry,1,1))[1]) = 1]">
    <xsl:sort select="@entry" />
    <xsl:variable name="initial" select="substring(@entry,1,1)" />
    <xsl:choose>

               <!--can't figure out what to do with following line -->
      <xsl:when test="($initial = 'something to check if 1 or 2 or...')">
        <h2>Numbers or symbols</h2>

               <!--not sure if following 4 lines do what I want
                   since I haven't been able to get here  -->
        <xsl:apply-templates>
          <xsl:sort select="@entry" />
          <p><a href="{../@location}"><xsl:value-of
select="@entry"/></a></p>
        </xsl:apply-templates>
      </xsl:when>
      <xsl:otherwise>
        <h2><xsl:value-of select="$initial" /></h2>
        <xsl:for-each select="key('letters', $initial)">
          <xsl:sort select="@entry" />
          <p><a href="{../@location}"><xsl:value-of
select="@entry"/></a></p>
        </xsl:for-each>
      </xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

except that I haven't found anything that works on the xsl:when line that
generates any output at all (and yes, I did remember to alter my XML to make
sure there was an index entry that began with a number) to see if what I
constructed following works.  Could someone help me out here, and also point
me in the right direction if the rest of my solution is misguided.  Thanks.
Eric


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