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[xsl] the best approach

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Folks,  you all have been very helpful when I have had very specific
questions and example data/desired output to go along with it.  Now I
am faced with a problem that is simply too complex to simplify down as
to provide you with example data, but conceptually it isn't very hard,
I think...

The final output is a simple detail table:  A table with 5 columns and
one or more rows.  Each cell of the table is a key/value pair.

Let us assume there are three difference "layouts" for this detail table:

1: The first one is fixed where there will always be only 4 name/value pairs
2: The second, like the first is fixed, but there are 8 name/value
pairs.  4 need to go on the 1st row with one empty cell and the last 4
go on the second row.
3: The third had 6 fixed name/value pairs, but then can have one or
more name value pairs after the fixed name/value pairs.

What I am doing and is viable, though a bit bloated for #1 and #2 is
simply manually create those tables with the correct layout.  It isn't
the prettiest code I have ever written, but it gets the job done.

It is #3 that has me stumped.  My initial thought is to do something
along the lines of what Micheal is doing in XSLT 2nd Edition
Programmers ref with the Kight's Tour Stylesheet.  That is create new
node sets.  It just happens that the first 4 name/value pairs of #1
and #2 are also the same as nodes 2 thou 5 of  #3.  So, I am thinking
that there has to be some way within XSLT to take a node set of X
nodes and convert it into a table view.  Is there?

The next problem is that the data is coming from all over the place.
All the names are hard coded in the XSLT.  Some of the value are at or
under the current node, but other values are accessed via keys.  How
would I go about creating a new node with such scattered data?

I would prefer not to change the data, unless that is the only choice,
so that is not out of the question, either.
--
Miltonstreet Photography
http://www.miltonstreet.com

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