After 3 more hours I finally got this to work inside XSLT.  I use a template
and do a variety os string functions to pull the values.

I will try to clean it up some and post the solution.

"Brian Peddle" <brian@n...> wrote in message
news:uYm29MjSEHA.3224@T......
> I have been given an XML document in which there is text I need to extract
> from the an element which has CDATA.  I'd like to just use XSL to handle
it
> but after spending a full day on a variety of approaches I am wondering if
> it is even possible with strictly XSLT.  I thought maybe if there was a
way
> to assign the element to a variable and some how say that is another XML
> document and then pull what I need.
>
> Open to suggestions.  Thanks
>
> <ELEMENT>
>  <![CDATA[
> <Parent>
> <child_1>Something</child_1>
> <child_2 id = "1">foo1</child_2>
> <child_2 id="2">foo2</child_2>
> <child_3>foo3</child_3>
> </Parent>
> ]]>
> </ELEMENT>
>
> This is the way the XML is sent and I have no control over it's format so
> changing it won't be a solution.
>
>