"Joe Gass" <joe@n...> wrote in message 
news:OsVVysqCFHA.4072@T......
> Thanks for that idea Dimitre, I worked it out another way.  I moved my 
> workings to a new template, then...
>
> <xsl:choose>
> <xsl:when test="$maxNodes!=''">
>  <xsl:apply-templates select="/RESULTS/REVIEWS/REVIEW[position() &lt;= 
> $maxNodes]"/>
> </xsl:when>
> <xsl:otherwise>
>  <xsl:apply-templates select="/RESULTS/REVIEWS/REVIEW"/>
> </xsl:otherwise>
> </xsl:choose>
>
> I'll give your way a go too
>
> Many thanks

Yes,

The idea of conditionally processing one out of two node-sets is simple and 
has a generic solution. The XPath expression to be used in the select 
attribute of xsl:apply-templates, xsl:for-each or for whatever other 
processing (e.g. as an argument to a function) is the following:

          $ns1[$condition]   |   $ns2[not($condition)]

where

    $condition is the same in both predicates XPath expression.

This is naturally generalised to a selection of one out of N node-sets based 
on the outcome of N mutually exclusive events.


Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev.