Convert java.util.Date value to string using EL

Question

How to compare java.util.Date value with String using JSTL and EL?

This is the model:

private Date myDate; // Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001

This is the view:

<c:if test="#{bean.myDate eq 'Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001'}">
    <h:outputText value="#{bean.myDate}">
        <f:convertDateTime pattern="EEEE dd MMM yyyy @ HH:mm:ss" />
    </h:outputText>
</c:if>

However the condition always evaluates false. How is how can I solve it?

BalusC · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-14 13:58:57Z

7

If your environment supports EL 2.2, just call its toString() method directly.

<c:if test="#{bean.myDate.toString() eq 'Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001'}">

If yours doesn't, convert it to String first by inlining it as body of <c:set>.

<c:set var="myDate">#{bean.myDate}</c:set>
<c:if test="#{myDate eq 'Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001'}">

Unrelated to the concrete problem, this is a rather strange way of comparing dates. It's very sensitive to changes in locale and timezone (if the webpage visitor uses a non-English locale and your webapp supports non-English locales, then the test on Wed Jan would fail and if the webserver is moved to non-CET timezone, then the test on CET would fail). Don't you rather want to compare it on year 1001 directly or a fixed pattern such as 1001-01-01 or so? Further I also wonder why you don't do the test in the rendered attribute of the JSF <h:outputText> component.

edited Nov 14, 2012 at 13:58

answered Nov 14, 2012 at 13:24

BalusC

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3 Comments

perissf Over a year ago

Sorry, what do you mean with "compare on year directly or so"?

BalusC Over a year ago

Works for me with JSTL 1.2 on Mojarra 2.1.14. I recall some problems when MyFaces is used. What JSF impl/version are you using? And what JSTL version? Does your environment really not support EL 2.2? Some of your previously asked questions implies that you're using Java EE 6 and thus implicitly Servlet 3.0 and thus implicitly EL 2.2. What servletcontainer impl/version are you actually using? As to comparing on year, just check if year equals 1001 or a fixed pattern without locale/timezone sensitiveness such as yyyy-MM-dd.

Karim Oukara Over a year ago

@BalusC

public Boolean getShow(){ 		if(this.myDate.toString() 			.equals("Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001")){ 			// do not show it 			return false; 		}else{ 			return true; 		} 	}

and in IHM I do this : <h:outputText value="#{bean.myDate }" rendered="#{bean.show}"> </h:outputText>

FrankTan · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-07 10:14:57Z

0

in jsf 1.2

this code works for me :

                           <webuijsf:button
                            actionExpression="#{guiRettificaBilPuntuale_2.button4_action}"
                            id="button4" text="#{bundle.TastoModificaRiga}" 
                            rendered="#{ bilDetailsTable.value.settStatus eq 'N' or bilDetailsTable.value.starttime eq aLGUISessionBean_01.monthCurrentPublBilDate ? false : true}">

and starttime and monthCurrentPublBilDate are both dates (java.Date) so you can transform string in Date and compare them

answered Jun 7, 2013 at 10:14

FrankTan

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