Newbie Questions

Re: XPath and Date Comparisons

Michael71 — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 16:39:50 GMT

Can you post your answer for other InfoPath Developers?

Michael

Re: XPath and Date Comparisons

Pinback — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:51:21 GMT

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this, but I finally did today.

It worked!

Thank you all so much for your help on this one. :)

Pinback

Re: XPath and Date Comparisons

Jimmy — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:48:28 GMT

Cool.

Potemkine is right; you can't directly use > or < with dates and if you're writing code you'll need to do something to strip out the punctuation, like in the example Potemkine has given.

In rules, conditional formatting, etc. inside the InfoPath designer, you can use msxsl:string-compare():

dfs:myFields/dfs:dataFields/dfs:Requests[msxsl:string-compare(@Begin_Date, '1978-06-01') = 1]

Re: XPath and Date Comparisons

Pinback — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 13:39:29 GMT

Jimmy,

Thanks! You are correct...there is no "need" for my date to be formatted any particular way. I just want to get it to work. :)

Potemkine,

Thank you for this, I will try it first thing Monday morning.

Pinback

Re: XPath and Date Comparisons

Potemkine — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:55:35 GMT

Hi Pinback, by default greater than or less than(<>) just don't work on string. You have to convert your @begin_date as a date or number. I have some good result if I convert them as number here my filter :

[number(translate(translate(translate(.,'-',''),' ',''),':','')) > number('19780601000000')]. As you see I concatenate your 2 variables to make a big number, so it's important to have exactly the same format.

Re: XPath and Date Comparisons

Jimmy — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:45:14 GMT

Pinback:
I need "2010-06-01 00:00:00" and '#6/1/1978#' to both be recognized as dates so that I can do a comparison. When I run it now, I get a 0 Node Count where of course 2010 is greater than 1978. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Why do you "need" to use a date format like #6/1/1978#? XML dates are of the format YYYY-MM-DD followed by Thh:mm:ss if the time is included. @Begin_Date > '1978-06-01' should find you the dates you are looking for.

Re: XPath and Date Comparisons

Pinback — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 01:20:59 GMT

Thanks Patrick,

Unfortunately, it is not up to me what software my organization uses, so I need to seek an XPath solution.

Anyone have an idea? :)

When I try to embed a function to do the work (example fn:year-from-dateTime), I get told it is an unknown function. I've tried 10 different functions...same result.

Thanks in advance,

Pinback

Re: XPath and Date Comparisons

Patrick Halstead — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:45:20 GMT

Hi Pinback,

We've had so many questions about dates that we finally decided to add a Date Diff function to qRules v2.2 (also now includes Format Date). You can add qRules to forms which already have code too: http://www.infopathdev.com/files/folders/qrules/entry56111.aspx.

Qdabra pays for this free forum and one way we defray the cost is by selling inexpensive tools like qRules. The trial download is free and you can get a discount on the $199 price if you send us a 3-4 sentence testimonial of how you liked it.

Thanks for your support,

XPath and Date Comparisons

Pinback — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:53:01 GMT

Hello again great forum,

NI is a XPathNodeIterator
DOM is a XPathNavigator

NI = DOM.Select("/dfs:myFields/dfs:dataFields/dfs:Requests[@Begin_Date > '#6/1/1978#' ]", Me.NamespaceManager)

In the InnerXML, Begin_Date looks like this: Begin_Date="2010-06-01 00:00:00"

I need "2010-06-01 00:00:00" and '#6/1/1978#' to both be recognized as dates so that I can do a comparison. When I run it now, I get a 0 Node Count where of course 2010 is greater than 1978. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,

Pinback