processing xml question

I have an xml file that I read in.  It has several (potentially 365) item
nodes.  The Item node looks as follows:

<item>
	<id>1038918508813</id>
	<title></title>
	<surveycode>CSEE_iConnect_Channel_Survey_2002-12-03
14:05:51</surveycode>	<link>/HIG/Survey/1038918508811.html</link>
	<pubdate>2002-12-11 00:00:00</pubdate>
	<expdate>2002-12-12 00:00:00</expdate>
	<archdate></archdate>
</item> 

The programming task is to get the most recently published item that isn't
expired and the previous one this one if there is one.

I accomplished this in the past by looping through the document and deleting
all the nodes that haven't been published or are expired.  Then I do a date
compare (second loop) holding two three items at a time to figure out the
news one, the one I publish, and the previously published one.  

I want to do this differently, by building a document fragment of items and
putting them in order newest to oldest.  Then I can just render the first
item in the new document fragment that meets the pubdate and expdate
condition, and the one after that is the previous one.  I don't know how to
take a document fragment and make it a document though, or if I have too. 

Is there a better way to accomplish this?  My programming language is Java,
I am using dom, and crimson.  I have the option of doing some of the xml
manipulation in xslt if I have to, but I am a much better java programmer
then I am a xsl programmer.  

Any advice on how you might do this is appreciated.

Regards,

Travis D. Falls
Developer
The Hartford 


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