Which should I use: preceding:: or preceding-sibling::?

Question

I\'m hesitating whether to write preceding or preceding-sibling in XSL such as an example xml below.

Answer 1

It is better to write a meaningful XPath as it is easier to read and will be easier to maintain. So, I would say I prefer the first way, since it is the closest to the English description of your intention :

preceding-sibling::team/staff[1]

or even more specific (if necessary) :

preceding-sibling::team[@area='Tokyo']/staff[1]

Also, element positions is generally less meaningful and tends to break easily upon slight changes on the XML arrangement, so I'd suggest not to rely on element position index too much.