I am using XSLT to loop through an xml structure to find the first child node that matches the specified criteria. When I reach that match I want to exit the loop and display only that first node in the output. But i am not able to exit the for loop prematurely. How do I solve this problem?

You cannot exit a loop prematurely because there is no such thing as a loop in XSLT. If you need to match a specific node then use xsl:apply-templates and select the correct node in combination with a suitable template. If you show some of the XML and your desired output I'd be able to give more specific advice.

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Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)

Why do you need a loop? You just need a filter expression:

<xsl:value-of select="nodes[criteria go here][1]"

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

Thank you. Can I get some more information about the nodes() function suggested? Is there any reference to this function anywhere?

Sorry, I assumed you would work out what I was trying to say.

If NODES is the expression that selects the nodes you want to "loop over", and CRITERIA is the criteria for matching, then NODES[CRITERIA][1] selects the first node that matches the criteria. For example //blonde[eye-colour='blue'][1] selects the first blue-eyed blonde.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference