automatic generation of figure numbers

["Dhruv Raheja" <dhruv_r at hotmail dot com>]

Hello All,
           I have this problem for sometime now but I am unable to solve it. 
I am hoping somebody on the list will be able to guide me. I have the 
following element in my code:

<figure file="pic.gif">
Figure
</figure>

The formatting is being done using XSL. The output should comprise:

-the text "Figure"
-a number (e.g. "1").

Thus the actual output is "Figure 1". The number portion of the output is to 
be generated automatically by XSL. I have several <figure> elements in the 
document for refering to different figures. The XSL code has a "count()" 
command that counts the preceding <figure> elements and then assigns the 
next number to the current <figure> element. My problem is that I may have 
more than I references to the same figure. i.e. lets say I want have "Figure 
1" more than once in the document. I use <figure file="pic.gif"> Figure 
</figure> for the first occurence of Figure 1 and the XSL code generates the 
output "Figure 1". I then subsequently have several <figure> elements for 
different figures and XSL accordingly assigns a number for each <figure> 
element, e.g. "Figure 2", "Figure 3" etc. Then I feel the need to refer back 
to "Figure 1". This is what is causing a problem. How do I tell XSL to stop 
counting at this point and assign the same figure number as for "Figure 1". 
One solution was that every time XSL sees the <figure> element, it compares 
the attribute "file" of the current <figure> element to the "file" attribute 
of all the previous <figure> elements.  If it finds any match (which it will 
if the same figure is being referenced again), it should stop the count and 
assign the same number to this element.
Mike Kay suggested (I am thankful to him for that) the following code:

<xsl:template match="figure">
<xsl:variable name="fig"><!--variable for the figure number-->
  <xsl:for-each select="//figure[@file=current()/@file[1]">
   <xsl:number level="any"                
count="figure[not(@file=preceding::file/@file)]"/>
  </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:variable>
</xsl:template>

Unfortunately, the code doesnt work completely. Although XSL is able to 
identify those <figure> elements that have the same "file" attribute and 
assign them the same number, the number it generates is arbitrary (not the 
desired number). Also Mike, I am unable to follow  logic of the code (which 
is entirely my shortcoming). Could you/anybody else explain it to me and 
also suggest any modifications that need to be made to it for the code to 
work?
I am really hoping that someone will be able to help.
If the problem is not clear, I would be happy to explain the "blurred" 
points again through email/phone.

Thanks a lot,
Regards,
Dhruv
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