Mycroft wrote:

> I have tried using code from EXSLT but that has not worked and everything I 
> read suggests that XSLT 2.0 might have a method to perform this operation, 
> but I find no examples.

Saxon 9 is the current Saxon version that implements XSLT and XPath 2.0. 
It has
http://www.saxonica.com/documentation/extensions/functions/evaluate.html
and
http://www.saxonica.com/documentation/extensions/functions/evaluate-node.html
so with your sample XML corrected to (you had 'type' instead of '@type' 
which does not find anything)

<library>
	<books>
		<book title="A" type="science fiction"/>
		<book title="B" type="fantasy"/>
		<book title="C" type="romance"/>
		<book title="D" type="science fiction"/>
		<book title="E" type="Christianity"/>
	</books>
	<librarian>
		<defaultXPath>//book[@type="Christianity"]</defaultXPath>
	</librarian>
</library>

and a stylesheet with

<xsl:stylesheet
   xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
   xmlns:saxon="http://saxon.sf.net/"
   exclude-result-prefixes="saxon"
   version="2.0">

   <xsl:template match="/">
     <xsl:apply-templates 
select="saxon:evaluate-node(library/librarian/defaultXPath)"/>
   </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="book">
     <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
   </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

the output is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><book title="E" type="Christianity"/>


-- 

	Martin Honnen --- MVP XML
	http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/