How to find the max attribute from an XML document using Xpath 1.0

Question

Is there a way to query an XML document to return the maximum of a given attribute using Xpath 1.0 ?

For example is there a way to get the max id ?

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Answer 1

If you're willing to use external tooling - which depends on your implementation featuring implementations of these tools - try the EXSLT:Math function highest().

The fact that EXSLT implements this implies that such a feature isn't directly available in plain xpath, of course. If you're not using Transforms, or want to stick purely with standards-compliant markup, other posters' suggestions would be a better choice.