Re: Handling position in non-atomic sequences

Hi folks,

if a sequence stored in a variable consists of elements, we can not use the

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

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

functx has a function
http://www.xsltfunctions.com/xsl/functx_index-of-node.html which might
help, using the `is` operator:

<xsl:function name="functx:index-of-node" as="xs:integer*"
              xmlns:functx="http://www.functx.com">
  <xsl:param name="nodes" as="node()*"/>
  <xsl:param name="nodeToFind" as="node()"/>

  <xsl:sequence select="
  for $seq in (1 to count($nodes))
  return $seq[$nodes[$seq] is $nodeToFind]
 "/>

I have also seen some approaches to use `index-of($seq!generate-id(),
generate-id($node))`.