Easier than preceding-sibling::

I don't like to use preceeding-sibling. It doesn't work when I want it to. So, I created a method that works just like it:

This method is a lot easier to implement. But, it doesn't work with <xsl:sort>. It requires the XML be in the correct sort order before doing the XSL Transform. If you don't have this luxury, you can use the method I will post in the following blog post. Or, if you are really brave, you can use the Muench Method. I think I posted how to do that in a previous post. Well, anyway you decide to do it, good luck.

<xsl:variable name="thisChildNode" select="Category"/>
<xsl:variable name="lastNodePosition" select="position() - 1"/>
<xsl:if test="not(/grandParentNode/parentNode[$lastNodePosition]/childNode = $thisChildNode)">
 <h2><xsl:value-of select="childNode" /></h2>
</xsl:if>