> I am hoping to to confirm something before going in the wrong
> direction.
>
> My process needs to take action on the first element in a list of
> elements where the logic to determine first is the lowest
> numeric value
> of the sortorder attribute.  I don't believe there is a
> one-line way to
> do this - I believe the entire list must be sorted, and then the
> position of each element after sort compared to determine if
> it is first.
>
> Is there a shorter/less expensive way to code the following
>
> <xsl:for-each select="item">
>    <xsl:sort select="@sortorder" data-type="number" />
>    <xsl:if test="position() = 1">
>      <!-- this is the first element in the sorted list -->
>    </xsl:if>
> </xsl:for-each>
>
> I searched and found examples using this technique, but
> nothing really
> saying that this was the best or only approach.

Yes, in 1.0 that's the best way.  You could use an extension function if
portability isn't an issue, such as exslt's math:min().

2.0 has the min() function inbuilt (if you are using Saxon you can
pick-and-choose(TM) the features of 2.0 you want and use them in your
1.0 stylesheet).

cheers
andrew