XPATH for all child nodes with different names

Question

I have a parent element with various child elements that I need to keep a count on. The problem I'm having is each child element is different name, so everytime I use count(*) the numbering restarts. I need the numbering to go 1.1, 1.2, 1.3...

The parent tag is <application> would be 1, <ident> would be 1.1, <kitapplic> would be 1.2, and <tctoproof> would be 1.3

I thought I could just do a count(child::application) but that didn't work. Your help is appreciated.

<application>
    <ident>
        <para>This Technical Order is applicable.</para>
    </ident>
    <kitapplic>
        <kitapptbl>
            <kitapptblrow>
                <model>Model</model>
                <serialno>Serial Number</serialno>
                <kitno>Kit Required</kitno>
            </kitapptblrow>
        </kitapptbl>
    </kitapplic>
    <tctoproof>
        <para>Time Compliance Technical Order (TCTO) verification, in accordance
            with TO 00-5-15, was accomplished 28 August 2019 at Nellis Air Force
        Base with GCS serial number 5147.</para>
    </tctoproof>
</application>

Answer 1

With XPath, you can use count preceding-sibling and concat to get the desired numbers. Example with kitapplic :

concat("1.",count(application/kitapplic/preceding-sibling::*)+1)

Output : 1.2

If you need a list with 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 for each child of application element you can do (example in Python) :

data = """<application>
    <ident>
        <para>This Technical Order is applicable.</para>
    </ident>
    <kitapplic>
        <kitapptbl>
            <kitapptblrow>
                <model>Model</model>
                <serialno>Serial Number</serialno>
                <kitno>Kit Required</kitno>
            </kitapptblrow>
        </kitapptbl>
    </kitapplic>
    <tctoproof>
        <para>Time Compliance Technical Order (TCTO) verification, in accordance
            with TO 00-5-15, was accomplished 28 August 2019 at Nellis Air Force
        Base with GCS serial number 5147.</para>
    </tctoproof>
</application>"""

import lxml.html
tree = lxml.html.fromstring(data)

for el in tree.xpath("//application/*"):
    print(el.xpath("concat(name(.),' 1.',count(./preceding-sibling::*)+1)"))

Output :

ident 1.1
kitapplic 1.2
tctoproof 1.3