xs:date

Converts $string-var (a string in the date format) to the date data type.

If the value of $string-var is the empty sequence, the empty sequence is returned.The empty sequence is a sequence containing zero items (), which is similar to null in SQL.

If the value of $string-var is not valid to the date format the following error is reported:

Could not cast "invalid_date_string" to type [date@htttp://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema] is displayed.

Where invalid_date_string is the string not valid to the date format, for example: "2003-04-31".

Signatures

xs:date(xs:string $string-var) —> xs:date

Arguments

Data Type
Argument
Description

xs:string

$string-var

Represents a string with the date specified with one of the following formats:

  • YYYY-MM-DD
  • YYYY-MM-DDZ
  • YYYY-MM-DD+hh:mm
  • YYYY-MM-DD-hh:mm


YYYY

Year.

MM

Month (as a number).

DD

Day.

-

Separator between year, month, and day.

hh

Number of hours.

mm

Number of minutes.

:

Separator between hours and minutes.

+

Positive time zone offset (If a plus or minus is not specified, + is assumed.)

-

Negative time zone offset.

hh

Number of hours that the time zone differs from UTC.

mm

Number of minutes that the time zone differs from UTC.

Z

Indicates that the time corresponds to the UTC time zone.

Returns

Returns the specified date in the date data type.

Examples

Simple

Invoking date("2003-08-16")returns a date value corresponding to August 16th, 2003 in the current time zone, as shown in the following example query:

let $mydate := xs:date("2003-08-16")
return
<components>
	<year>{xf:get-year-from-date($mydate)}</year>
	<month>{xf:get-month-from-date($mydate)}</month>
	<day>{xf:get-day-from-date($mydate)}</day>
</components> 

The preceding query, generates the following XML result:

<components>
	<year>2003</year>
	<month>8</month>
	<day>16</day>
</components> 

UTC Time Zone

Invoking date("2003-08-16Z") returns a date value corresponding to August 16th, 2003 in the UTC time zone, as shown in the following example query:

let $mydate := xs:date("2003-08-16Z")
return
<components>
	<year>{xf:get-year-from-date($mydate)}</year>
	<month>{xf:get-month-from-date($mydate)}</month>
	<day>{xf:get-day-from-date($mydate)}</day>
</components> 

Note: The Z in the a date string, specifies that the date is specified in the UTC time zone.

The preceding query, generates the following XML result:

<components>
	<year>2003</year>
	<month>8</month>
	<day>16</day>
</components> 

Offset Time Zone

Invoking date("2003-08-16-02:00") returns a date value corresponding to August 16th, 2003 in a time zone that is offset by -2 hours from UTC, as shown in the following example query:

let $mydate := xs:date("2003-08-16-02:00")
return
<components>
	<year>{xf:get-year-from-date($mydate)}</year>
	<month>{xf:get-month-from-date($mydate)}</month>
	<day>{xf:get-day-from-date($mydate)}</day>
</components> 

The preceding query, generates the following XML result:

<components>
	<year>2003</year>
	<month>8</month>
	<day>16</day>
</components> 

Error—Not A Valid Date

Invoking date("2003-04-31") outputs an error because April 31, 2003 is not a valid date. (There are not 31 days in April.)

For example, the following example query:

<result>{xs:date("2003-04-31")}</result> 

Produces the following error:

Error occurred while executing XQuery: Could not cast "2003-04-31" to type [date@http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema] 

Error—Incorrect Format

Invoking date("2003-8-16") outputs an error because the month is not specified using two digits.

For example, the following example query:

<result>{xs:date("2003-8-16")}</result> 

Produces the following error:

Error occurred while executing XQuery: Could not cast "2003-8-16" to type [date@http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema] 

Related Topics

W3C date data type description