Correct syntax for date

[bjmurph]

Hi there, I'm trying to find a way to ensure a date is in a specific format, however I'm struggling. I want it to be in the format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss, and if it's not in that format I want to output something generic (for instance, 2000-01-01 00:00:00). I'm trying to do this using xslt. This is my current code, which is just an example I'm using to figure it out:

<xsl:variable name="varfulldate"><xsl:value-of select="fulldate"/></xsl:variable>

<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test='$varfulldate=2'>
<td><xsl:value-of select="fulldate"/></td>
</xsl:when>
<xsltherwise>
<td>2000-01-01 00:00:00</td>
</xsltherwise>
</xsl:choose>

This works, however I obvoiusly don't want to test if it's equal to '2'. I want to somehow test to ensure it's in the proper format, and if not I want to through the whole value away and use 2000-01-01 00:00:00. Does anyone know how to do this?

 

[opengavel]

Check out number 12 at the following link.

The discussion isn't about the particular date format you are talking about (i.e., ISO-8601) but it should lead you in the right direction. google iso-8601 and regex for more.

http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/rev2/regex2.html#d16907e331

 

[bjmurph]

Thanks opengavel, however I'm fairly new to xml/xslt developing and that method doesn't seem to be working for me. If I put the first example in from number 12 (i.e. not the custom function), I get the following error in firefox:

Error during XSLT transformation: An XPath expression was expected to return a NodeSet.

If I change the line (only because I'm guessing that's the problem line):
<xsl:for-each select="$dates/DATE">
To:
<xsl:for-each select="myactualpath/fulldate">

I get the following error:
Error during XSLT transformation: An unknown XPath extension function was called.

 

[k5tm]

What tool are you using? Are you sure it has XPath 2.0 capability?

Tom Morrison

http://www.liant.com

 

[xwb]

Note that 5 figures for the year is legal in XML.