Hallo all (or just Hallo Michael :D)

I have an XML data which has a DTD instead of Schema. I need to compare an element value if it is a date type formatted or not. Normally I could write some sort of code like
  <xsl:template match="shipDate">
    <xsl:if test="not(string(.) castable as xs:date)">
      <xsl:text>
Following shipDate value not a date: </xsl:text>
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:template>

but I am not sure if I can check my element value like that. It would be fine if someone can help me to solve this problem.



Your attitude determines your altitude

__________________
Your attitude determines your altitude

Provided you are using XSLT 2.0 your code looks fine. You don't need a schema to use the built-in types such as xs:date.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

Thanks Michael

I have written this code chunk

<xsl:variable name="messageDate">
<xsl:value-of select="./messagedate"/>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:if test ="not(string($messageDate) castable as xs:date)">
<xsl:element name="error">
    <xsl:attribute name="type">element</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="name">messagedate</xsl:attribute>
    <xsl:attribute name="message">Element is not in Date format</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:element>
</xsl:if>

but when I try to run this with an XML file I become this error

ERROR:
Expected token ')', found 'castable '.
not(string($messageDate) -->castable <-- as xs:date)

what can be the reason for it?

Actually I am using Visual Studio 2005 for this transformation and I don't know if it supports XSLT2.0 If not what should I do instead of castable? I know that XSLT 1.0 doesn't support the castable function.

Many thanks


Your attitude determines your altitude

That message rather suggests that you are using an XSLT 1.0 processor rather than a 2.0 processor.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

Visual Studio certainly doesn't use XSLT 2.0 and will probably not do so until the version after next, unless they release some sort of add-in.

--

Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)

Thank you both for your replies. What I only could do is that I have written a looooong template (The format was CCYYMMDDHHMMSS CC for century like 19-20) which includes the variables (with substring) and in a choose operation I have tested their values. I HATE MICROSOFT.

Your attitude determines your altitude