[xsl] Getting max/min numbers out of nested structure

Subject: [xsl] Getting max/min numbers out of nested structure
From: Michele R Combs <mrrothen@xxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:35:26 +0000
Given this nested structure (hope it comes through legibly):

<a>
     <b>
          <box>1</box>
          <box>1</box>
     </b>
     <b>
          <box>1</box>
          <box>2</box>
          <c>
               <box>2</box>
               <box>2</box>
          </c>
     </b>
</a>
<a>
     <b>
          <box>3</box>
          <box>4</box>
          <c>
               <box>6</box>
               <box>6</box>
          </c>
          <box>5</box>
          <box>5</box>
     </b>
     <b>
          <box>5</box>
          <box>5</box>
     </b>
</a>

What is the easiest way to find the max/min box numbers in each <a>?  That is,
for the first <a> I want "1-2" and for the second <a> I want "3-6."  FYI, in
the real data, rather than stopping at three nested levels (a, b, c) it can
potentially go up to 12 (!!).  Normally I would simply grab the value from the
first descendant and the value from the last descendant, but it turns out that
sometimes the numbers aren't in order within the document tree (as shown in
the second <a>) so that's not reliable enough.

Thanks --

Michele

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