Equals (=)

Hello all,
     I am sure this question is implementation-specific, and probably just
for my own knowledge, but perhaps a generalized response is possible.

     How does XSL compare two elements to see if they are equal?
i.e. <xsl:if test = "$element1=$element2>

In my current situation(comparing using Saxon), doing this seems to be
tremendously faster than comparing all of the children of element1 and
element2.  My assumption is that the parser hashes up each element and
compares them.  Is this correct?

Thanks in advance,
Matt Youngblut


 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list