Thanks guys (incl.George James), but it just keeps failing when I try to
include the translate in the Select expression.
It was fine translating the input parameter into a new variable (as
suggested by George) and now I've cheated by re-speccing the xml file to
have dates without dashes, so it now works as required.
Alan
----- Original Message -----
From: "M. David Peterson" <m(_dot_)david(_at_)mdptws(_dot_)com>
To: <xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2004 11:16 AM
Subject: Re: [xsl] expression syntax
Hey Alan,
The two things to consider when using a XSLT 1.0 processor (MSXML3 or
MSXML4 -- both are possibilities as far as what version of MSXML is on
your system -- are XSLT 1.0 processors):
- There is no date comparison function.
- In 1.0 there is type support for the 4 XPath data types - string,
number, boolean, node-set.
With this in mind your element date value of 2004-11-14 is viewed as a
string, not a number. So using < = or > will return no possible
matches for anything that is not a number. In your case, given the
order of your date entities you are in luck as you can simply use the
translate() function to convert the '-' (dash) to '' (empty string or
empty space, however you want to term it. translate(date, '-', '') will
accomplish this task. This will then allow a simple type conversion
from a string to a number by using the number funtion. The simplest way
to do this is to wrap the previous translate function inside the number
function as so: number(translate(date, '-', ''))
To get the results you are looking for my suggestion would be to take
the above conversion functions and use them within xsl:apply-templates,
using the match attribute of a xsl:template element to match the 'date'
element and make a copy of that particular nodes contents. So something
like this:
<xsl:param name="date" select="'20041114'"/>
<!-- NOTE: by using param instead of variable you allow yourself the
ability to pass the value in from outside the template -->
<xsl:template match="/">
<dates>
<xsl:apply-templates
select="performance/date[number(translate(., '-', '')) >= $today]"/>
</dates>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="date">
<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>
Should be much more effective for you in gaining access to the nodes
that match your number based comparison. NOTE: Something to keep in
mind... The translate function above will only make a copy of the
string contained within the date element and use that for comparison.
The actual value will retain its original '-' delimited string version.
The matching template will make a copy of each matching element from the
specified criteria (complete copy of the element, its attributes (if
any), and its value). So don't be surprised to see the dashes still in
place when looking at your output.
Hope this helps!
<M:D/>
Alan Divorty wrote:
I am trying to compare two dates, one in the xml data against an external
parameter holding today's date.
The format of each is yyyy-mm-dd
<xsl:for-each select="performance[date = $today]">
successfully processes records with today's date. However, I want to
select
all records equal to or later than today, but
<xsl:for-each select="performance[date >= $today]"> does not select
any
records.
Is my syntax wrong?
I'm using IE6 to process the files.
Thanks,
Alan
--~------------------------------------------------------------------
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
To unsubscribe, go to: http://lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/
or e-mail:
<mailto:xsl-list-unsubscribe(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
--~--
--~------------------------------------------------------------------
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
To unsubscribe, go to: http://lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/
or e-mail:
<mailto:xsl-list-unsubscribe(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
--~--
--~------------------------------------------------------------------
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
To unsubscribe, go to: http://lists.mulberrytech.com/xsl-list/
or e-mail: <mailto:xsl-list-unsubscribe(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
--~--