If it works with SelectNodes then it's the same with SelectSingleNode, which 
just delegates to SelectNodes and returns the first in the list.
The Offset you specified was 2, not 5, the XPath should look like:
/Offset/Dist/x[starts-with(., '2')]
so make sure that's what you get my using a MsgBox or similar to display the 
final XPath before using it.

-- 

Joe Fawcett (MVP - XML)

http://joe.fawcett.name

"Dave F." <df@b...> wrote in message 
news:%23weak2EBIHA.4836@T......
> Martin Honnen wrote:
>> Dave F. wrote:
>>
>>> Is there away to use starts-with with selectSingleNode?
>>
>> Yes, but with MSXML 3 you need to set
>>   MsDom.setProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"
>> first. Later MSXML version (e.g. 4/5/6) do support XPath by default.
>>
>>
>
> Thanks to both for your replies.
> I'm using v4, so it must be a problem with the syntax. Which is what's 
> confusing me.
> It returning just the first node it finds. I thought it returned a node 
> with all the test strings beginning with 5.
>
> You'll have to excuse me, I'm newish to XML/XPATH. & not sure what I'm 
> doing.
>
> Can you point me in the right direction?
>
> Cheers
> Dave F.