I am trying to get the last value of a series of values using variable reassignement. But, it's not working (see the code below) as variable reassignment is not possible in XSL. Also, we don't have arrays in XSL from where I can get the last value. Can anyone suggest an alternative approach?

<xsl:when test="../@refer_condition1='true' and ../@refer_condition2='true'">
                <xsl:variable name="cond"/>
                    <fo:table-cell border-style="thin"
                        number-columns-spanned="2">
                        <xsl:for-each select="parent::node()">
                            <xsl:for-each select="preceding-sibling::node()">
                                <xsl:if test="not(@condition='^')">
                                        <xsl:variable name="cond" select="@condition"/>
                                    </xsl:if>
                            </xsl:for-each>
                        </xsl:for-each>
                                <fo:block start-indent="0pt" font-family="Arial"
                                    language="EN-US" space-before="3pt"
                                    space-before.conditionality="retain" space-after="3pt"
                                    space-after.conditionality="retain" font-size="9pt"
                                    font-style="italic">
                                    <xsl:value-of select="$cond"/>
                                </fo:block>
                    </fo:table-cell>

Try something like

<xsl:variable name="cond">
  <xsl:value-of select="../preceding-sibling::node()[not(@condition='^')][last()]" />
</xsl:variable>

/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

Thanks for prompt reply Sam
but it's not working
I placed it in <fo:block> but it's not returning anything

<xsl:when test="../@refer_condition1='true' and ../@refer_condition2='true'">
                <xsl:variable name="cond"/>
                    <fo:table-cell border-style="thin"
                        number-columns-spanned="2">
                        <!--<xsl:for-each select="parent::node()">
                            <xsl:for-each select="preceding-sibling::node()">
                                <xsl:if test="not(@condition='^')">
                                        <xsl:variable name="cond" select="@condition"/>
                                    </xsl:if>
                            </xsl:for-each>
                        </xsl:for-each>
                                --><                                fo:block start-indent="0pt" font-family="Arial"
                                    language="EN-US" space-before="3pt"
                                    space-before.conditionality="retain" space-after="3pt"
                                    space-after.conditionality="retain" font-size="9pt"
                                    font-style="italic">
                                    <xsl:value-of select="../preceding-sibling::node()[not(@condition='^')][last()]" />
                                </fo:block>
                    </fo:table-cell>

Well I don't know the format of your XML so can't really comment on whether my 'guess' at the correct xpath is right.

It was simply meant to show you the direction you could go in to get what you want. You're expected to fill in the final details.

/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

Your guess was correct I am trying to get the last preceding sibling of current node's parent where condition is not '^'. But I'm not sure about the syntax as I am new to XSL

Thanks anyways for your help

It looks to me as if you are trying to get the last element among the preceding siblings of your parent that satisfies not(@condition='^').

In XPath that's

../preceding-sibling::*[not(@condition='^')][1]

Try to translate your description of the problem into an expression that describes it directly, forget about procedural logic like looping and assignment, it just makes your life more difficult.

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

THANKS A LOT Michael
You saved me. I had to submit the generated document to my client by evening.