xml - How to compare two date variables in XSLT? -

i've written simple xslt below. long , short want 2 things.

first, want print whether or not new order. purposes, order new if ordercreatedate , ordereditdate fields same.

second, want print 2 dates (to check work; formatting isn't important, yet.)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/xsl/transform"     xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl"                 >               <xsl:output method="text" indent="yes"/>  <xsl:template match="/arrayofdp_rundatesall">   <xsl:variable name='ordercreatedate' select='dp_rundatesall[1]/ordercreatedate'/>   <xsl:variable name='ordereditdate' select='dp_rundatesall[1]/ordereditdate'/>   <xsl:choose>     <xsl:when test='ordercreatedate != ordereditdate'>       existing order!     </xsl:when>     <xsl:otherwise>             new order!       ordercreatedate <xsl:value-of select='$ordercreatedate' />       ordereditdate   <xsl:value-of select='$ordereditdate' />     </xsl:otherwise>   </xsl:choose>        </xsl:template>   </xsl:stylesheet> 

i expect above xslt, when record processed 2 separate dates, output should existing order!.

however, see following output.

  new order!   ordercreatedate 2013-08-16t10:27:39   ordereditdate   2013-08-17t17:19:43.6     

by rules described above, should have printed existing order! (because 2 dates don't match). have done wrong result here?

you're missing dollar signs - should be

<xsl:when test='$ordercreatedate != $ordereditdate'> 

your current test trying find elements called ordercreatedate , ordereditdate children of current context node, presume (given variable definitions) don't exist. it's checking whether '' != '', , taking otherwise branch.