RE: Problems calculating the running time of an xsl s

> On each XSL files I'm setting a global variable to store the
> current date time.
>
> <xsl:variable name="startExecutionTime" as="xs:dateTime">
>     <xsl:value-of select="current-dateTime()"/>
>   </xsl:variable>

Why 3 lines of code where one would do?

<xsl:variable name="startExecutionTime" as="xs:dateTime"
select="current-dateTime()"/>

>
> The template appends start and current time and calculates
> duration minutes although unlikely and seconds

All calls on current-dateTime() within a single transformation are required
to return the same result. This is because order of execution in XSLT is
undefined - it's meaningless to talk of which expressions are evaluated "at
the start" or "at the end" of the transformation. For example, a global
variable might be evaluated at the start, or it might be evaluated on first
use - or even on each use if the processor so decides.
>
> Is there a way to calculate the running time of an xsl script
> within the script?
>

You can call extension functions, recognizing that the result of calling
"impure" extension functions is not 100% predictable.

But for most purposes, I'd suggest that measuring it externally (from the
calling application) makes more sense.

Regards,

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
http://twitter.com/michaelhkay