ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
Host architecture and OS independent.
Java 8 .. 20+EA-27 inclusive.


A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
Comprehensive details in the attached zip file.

Synopsis: XPath expressions with multiple predicates ("x[a][b][c]") are evaluated correctly through the XPath APIs but incorrectly when used as XSLT template selectors.

This appears similar to a very old bug in the Xalan code which was ported to the JDK codebase for Java 7, and which is probably the reason XPath works. However, the XSLT case also works in the most recent (2014, 2.7.2) Xalan-J codebase, so it's possibly a later fix that wasn't ported across.

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
There's a script in the the attached zip file and you can run to reproduce the working and failing cases, with and without a classpath version of Xalan-J.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
XPath in XSLT should match the same elements as XPath in isolation.
ACTUAL -
Evaluation of XPath in XSLT sometimes gives incorrect results.

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See the attached zip file
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CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
Putting the 2014-era Xalan-J on the classpath gives the correct results.

It's possible, but disruptive and obviously not very confidence-inspiring, to rewrite the XPath expression until you find something that gives the correct answer.

FREQUENCY : always