jfrensen@h... wrote:

> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <root>
> 	<Students>
> 		<row>
> 			<Name>Bob</Name>
> 		</row>
> 		<row>
> 			<Name>Joe</Name>
> 		</row>
> 	</Students>
> </root>

> Note that the XPath /root/Students/row/Name yielded a nodeset of two
> names, as shown by the value of both Count and AllNames.  But the
> expression
> /root/Students/row/Name[position() = last()] did not evaluate to the
> second name. 

That's because Name elements aren't siblings. Each Name element is the 
only Name element row element contains, so at the point when Name 
element is selected, context node-set contains single Name element, so 
last() = 1.

> Even more strangely, /root/Students/row/Name[1] and /
> root/Students/row/Name[last()] yielded the same result, even though
> the nodeset in question contains two names.

last() function returns context node-set size. During XPath expression 
evaluation context node-set is changing by each location step and 
predicate.

You need (/root/Students/row/Name)[position() = last()]

-- 
Oleg Tkachenko [XML MVP, MCPD]
http://www.tkachenko.com/blog | http://www.XmlLab.Net