Sorting Problem

Hello. My XML file is full of Object constructions such as the following
(simplified). The first Object is a Job that has multiple Runs. The second
object is one of the Runs referenced by the Job. I need to find all the runs
for the particular job, and then sort the runs by their
/Attributes[Name='Started at']/Value. (In other words, I want to sort the
Runs by the time they started.)

<Object id="PID-1">
 <SubAttributes CreationType="Job" Name="Job1"/>
 <Attributes>
  <Name>Name</Name>
  <Value>Job1</Value>
 </Attributes>
 <Relationships>
  <Relationship>
   <Name>Has_Run</Name>
   <ValueList>
    <Value>
     <Reference Id="#PID-2">Run 1</Reference>
    </Value>
    <Value>
     <Reference Id="#PID-3">Run 2</Reference>
    </Value>
   </ValueList>
  </Relationship>
 </Relationships>
</Object>

<Object id="PID-2">
 <SubAttributes CreationType="Run" Name="Run1"/>
 <Attributes>
  <Name>Started at</Name>
  <Value>2003-04-07 11:32:37</Value>
 </Attributes>
 <Relationships>
  <Relationship>
   <Name>Of_Job</Name>
   <ValueList>
    <Value>
     <Reference Id="#PID-1">Job1</Reference>
    </Value>
   </ValueList>
  </Relationship>
  <Relationship>
   <Name>Has_Component_Run</Name>
   <ValueList>
    <Value>
     <Reference Id="#PID-4">Component_Run 1</Reference>
    </Value>
   </ValueList>
  </Relationship>
 </Relationships>			
</Object>

Normally, I would start with:
<xsl:for-each
select="//Object[@id=$JobID]/Relationships/Relationship[Name='Has_Run']/Valu
eList/Value/Reference/@Id">

Then I would hope to sort the Runs by their "Started at" value. But I can
find no way to do such a sort in this order. You can't just put each Run Id
into a variable (after removing the hash mark) and then sort. For example,
creating a variable after the xsl:for-each and then doing this doesn't work
at all:
 <xsl:sort select="//Object[@id=$RunID]/Attributes[Name='Started
at']/Value." order="descending"/>

So I have been reduced to starting with all Runs, regardless of which Job
they come from:
<xsl:for-each
select="//Object/SubAttributes[@CreationType='Run']/../Attributes[Name='Star
ted at']/Value">
Then sorting by the "Started at" value, then doing an xsl:if to get only the
runs that are related to the particular Job.
Unfortunately, this change of focus means that I have to redo everything
that comes next in the stylesheet.

Any suggestions?

Walter Crockett
 

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