Numbering tables where multiple instances count as one table XSLT 3.0 - count

Question

Given this XML:
<preliminaryRqmts>
<!-- Table 1 -->
<reqCondGroup>
<reqCondNoRef>
<reqCond>Lorem ipsum</reqCond>
</reqCondNoRef>
</reqCondGroup>
<!-- Table 2 -->
<reqPersons>
<person man="A">
<personCategory personCategoryCode="Chemical technician"/>
<personSkill skillLevelCode="sk02"/>
<trade>Cleaner</trade>
<estimatedTime unitOfMeasure="h">1,0</estimatedTime>
</person>
</reqPersons>
<reqPersons>
<person man="B">
<personCategory personCategoryCode="Operator"/>
<personSkill skillLevelCode="sk02"/>
<trade>Painter</trade>
<estimatedTime unitOfMeasure="h">1,0</estimatedTime>
</person>
</reqPersons>
<reqPersons>
<person man="B">
<personCategory personCategoryCode="Operator"/>
<personSkill skillLevelCode="sk03"/>
<trade>Rider</trade>
<estimatedTime unitOfMeasure="h">0,8</estimatedTime>
</person>
</reqPersons>
<!-- Table 3 -->
<reqSafety>
<noSafety/>
</reqSafety>
</preliminaryRqmts>
<taskDefinition>
<task>
<taskDescr>
<simplePara>Lorem ipsum</simplePara>
</taskDescr>
</task>
<preliminaryRqmts>
<!-- Table 4 -->
<reqCondGroup>
<noConds/>
</reqCondGroup>
<!-- Table 5 -->
<reqPersons>
<person man="A">
<personCategory personCategoryCode="Basic user"/>
<trade>Operator</trade>
<estimatedTime unitOfMeasure="h">0,3</estimatedTime>
</person>
</reqPersons>
<!-- Table 6 -->
<reqSpares>
<noSpares/>
</reqSpares>
</preliminaryRqmts>
</taskDefinition>
I have to include the Table number when outputting the table title. <reqPersons> may have multiple siblings but they are counted as one table. So in the XML provided, the first three reqPersons are counted as one table, Table 2. reqPersons is not a required element so there could be <preliminaryRqmts> without any <reqPersons>.
I am having trouble getting the correct table numbering for reqPersons when there is more than one preliminaryRqmts with a reqPersons. Originally I had <xsl:value-of select="if(preceding::reqPersons) then 1 else 0"/>. This fails when there are multiple preliminaryRqmts/reqPersons.
Here are the templates for the table numbering and reqPersons. Only the first reqPersons gets a title and table number. Any following-siblings::reqPersons are ignored in the table count. I need help with fixing <xsl:variable name="countPer" select="count(ancestor-or-self::preliminaryRqmts/reqPersons[1])"/>, the rest of the numbering is working properly.
<xsl:template match="reqPersons[1]">
<fo:block>
<xsl:text>Table </xsl:text>
<xsl:call-template name="number-tables"/>
<xsl:text>  Required persons</xsl:text>
</fo:block>
<fo:table>
<xsl:call-template name="reqPersonTableBody"/>
</fo:table>
</fo:block>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="reqPersons">
<fo:block>
<fo:table>
<xsl:call-template name="reqPersonTableBody"/>
</fo:table>
</fo:block>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="reqPersonTableBody">
<fo:table-column column-number="1" column-width="33%"/>
<fo:table-column column-number="2" column-width="33%"/>
<fo:table-column column-number="3" column-width="33%"/>
<fo:table-header>
<fo:table-row>
<fo:table-cell>
<fo:block>Person</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
<fo:table-cell>
<fo:block>Category</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
<fo:table-cell>
<fo:block>Skill level</fo:block>
</fo:table-cell>
</fo:table-row>
</fo:table-header>
<fo:table-body>
<xsl:apply-templates select="personnel | person"/>
</fo:table-body>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="number-tables">
<xsl:variable name="countreqCondTables" select="count(preceding::reqCondGroup|preceding::reqSupportEquips|preceding::reqSupplies|preceding::reqSpares|preceding::reqTechInfoGroup)"/>
<xsl:variable name="countPer" select="count(ancestor-or-self::preliminaryRqmts/reqPersons[1])"/>
<xsl:variable name="countSelfPer" select="count(ancestor-or-self::reqPersons[1])"/>
<xsl:variable name="countSelf" select="count(ancestor-or-self::table|ancestor-or-self::reqCondGroup|ancestor-or-self::reqSupportEquips|ancestor-or-self::reqSupplies|
ancestor-or-self::reqSpares|ancestor-or-self::reqTechInfoGroup)"/>
<xsl:value-of select="$countPer+$countSelf+$countSelfPer+$countreqCondTables"/>
</xsl:template>

Answer 1

I would check whether you can use xsl:number count="some pattern matching the elements you want to count" level="any" e.g. in XSLT 3
<xsl:param name="table-count-pattern" static="yes" as="xs:string" select="'preliminaryRqmts/reqCondGroup | preliminaryRqmts/reqPersons[1] | preliminaryRqmts/reqSafety | preliminaryRqmts/reqSpares'"/>
<xsl:template _match="{$table-count-pattern}">
<xsl:comment>computed table <xsl:number _count="{$table-count-pattern}" level="any"/></xsl:comment>
<xsl:next-match/>
</xsl:template>
seems to give the numbers you have in your comments output in another comment. Of course, you don't want to output a comment, you want to output that number in your fo:block but you can obviously adapt the above suggestion easily. If needed, if you have lots of different templates for all the elements that need to output that count, put the above template in a mode with e.g. mode="count", and in your other templates, where you need to number, use e.g. <xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="count"/>. You will probably want to remove the xsl:next-match in that case.