Is there a way to find the last instance of a character in a string without using recursion? I have a recursive solution, but it is exceptionally slow.. Thanks

If you're using XSLT 2.0, you could use the tokenize function.
Then take the length of the last string, and subtract it from the total length.

This functions runs fairly slowly, but will probably not have the overhead of the recursive templates.

If that's not an option, you could divide the string in 2 and search the last half first, then the first half; (this is another recursive template).

I don't think a non-recursive solution is possible in 1.0. But some recursive solutions (and some XSLT processors!) may be faster than others. Show us your code.

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

thanks for response guys. I have to use XSLT 1.0. I think I will simply muddle through with current recursion scheme. I have plenty of other things to do while I wait for it to crank through the transformation!

There may well be a faster way of writing the code, but first you have to show us your code.

Please don't be shy of doing this. Exposing your code and getting feedback on it is a great way of learning.

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