XPATH Predicate for container variable of simple type in BPM

Hi Experts,

I have read various threads and blogs with this topic and as I couldn't get a clear view, hence I am raising it here. In my BPM, I am collecting idocs by means of a finite loop. I have used a receive step, container step(to append the idocs) and another container(to increment the counter_variable) in a loop. I want to run the loop for the condition: counter_variable<=3 whereas 'counter_variable' is a container variable of 'simple XSD type(XSD: integer)'.

All the blogs and threads have demonstrated like how to use the EX operator with container variable of type 'Abstract interface'. But how can i incorporate the above scenario for a container variable of simple xsd type ? Please share your ideas.

Regards,

Laawanya