Validate custom date and time in XML with XSD

Question

I have to validate dates formatted like this 09.02.2015 (DD.MM.YYYY) and times 14:05 (HH:MM), but can't find a way to do this.

Here's an example:

XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <testdate>09.02.2015</testdate>
    <testtime>14:05</testtime>
</root>

XSD:

<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
           xmlns:sql="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:mapping-schema">
    <!-- Root element -->
    <xs:element name="root">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="testdate" type="zsdate"/>
                <xs:element name="testtime" type="zstime"/>
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>

    <!-- Date format used to validate dates formatted like 01.01.2015 -->
    <xs:simpleType name="zsdate">
        <xs:restriction base="xs:date">
            <xs:pattern value="^(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]).(0[1-9]|1[012]).(19|20)\d\d$"/>
        </xs:restriction>
    </xs:simpleType>

    <!-- Time format used to validate times formatted like 11:55, 23:59 etc. -->
    <xs:simpleType name="zstime">
        <xs:restriction base="xs:time">
            <xs:pattern value="^(0[0-9]|[1][0-9]|2[1-3]):([0-5][1-9])$"/>
        </xs:restriction>
    </xs:simpleType>
</xs:schema>

I've tried to validate the XML with the notepad++ XML plugin and with this XML validator.

Notepad++ output:

Validation of current file using XML schema:

ERROR: Element 'testdate': '09.02.2015' is not a valid value of the atomic type 'zsdate'.
ERROR: Element 'testtime': '14:05' is not a valid value of the atomic type 'zstime'.

When testing the regular expression with Regular Expression Tester, it matches correctly.
I've tried changing the types from xs:date and xs:time to xs:string, but the validation result is the same.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Solution 1

Your date and time requirements are not proper restrictions of xs:date and xs:time. If they were, making these changes would work (but just not be as tight as you'd like):

                <xs:element name="testdate" type="xs:date"/>
                <xs:element name="testtime" type="xs:time"/>

So, to use your patterns, you have to base them on xs:string. You also have to take into account that in XSD's xs:pattern regular expressions, there is already an implicit ^ anchor at the beginning and $ anchor at the end of the pattern. Removing the extra ones you've added eliminates the problem you were having.

XSD

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
           xmlns:sql="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:mapping-schema">
    <!-- Root element -->
    <xs:element name="root">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="testdate" type="zsdate"/>
                <xs:element name="testtime" type="zstime"/>
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>

    <!-- Date format used to validate dates formatted like 01.01.2015 -->
    <xs:simpleType name="zsdate">
        <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
            <xs:pattern value="(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]).(0[1-9]|1[012]).(19|20)\d\d"/>
        </xs:restriction>
    </xs:simpleType>

    <!-- Time format used to validate times formatted like 11:55, 23:59 etc. -->
    <xs:simpleType name="zstime">
        <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
            <xs:pattern value="(0[0-9]|[1][0-9]|2[1-3]):([0-5][1-9])"/>
        </xs:restriction>
    </xs:simpleType>
</xs:schema>

Solution 2

Better like this, to validate HH:50:

<xs:pattern value="(0[0-9]|[1][0-9]|2[1-3]):([0-5][0-9])"/>

Comments

[Philippe]

Thanks! I wasn't aware of the implicit ^ and $