XSLT Reference
current-dateTime()
Returns the current date and time as an xs:dateTime value, fixed for the duration of the transformation.
Syntax
current-dateTime()Description
current-dateTime() returns the current date and time as a single xs:dateTime value, including the implicit timezone of the processor. The value is fixed for the entire transformation, so all calls within a single run return the same timestamp.
It is the most complete timestamp function in XPath 2.0, combining both the date information of current-date() and the time information of current-time().
Parameters
This function takes no parameters.
Return value
xs:dateTime — the current date and time in ISO 8601 form YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.sss+HH:MM. Stable for the lifetime of the transformation.
Examples
Add a full ISO timestamp to the root element
Input XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<export>
<record id="1">Alpha</record>
<record id="2">Beta</record>
</export>
Stylesheet:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/export">
<export timestamp="{current-dateTime()}">
<xsl:copy-of select="*"/>
</export>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Output (example):
<export timestamp="2026-04-18T14:32:07.123+01:00">
<record id="1">Alpha</record>
<record id="2">Beta</record>
</export>
Format a human-readable timestamp
Stylesheet:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="text"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="format-dateTime(current-dateTime(), '[FNn] [D] [MNn] [Y] at [H01]:[m01]')"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Output (example):
Saturday 18 April 2026 at 14:32
Notes
- Not available in XSLT 1.0.
- All three functions —
current-date(),current-time(), andcurrent-dateTime()— return consistent values derived from the same instant. - Use
xs:date(current-dateTime())to extract just the date portion, orxs:time(current-dateTime())for just the time. - Pair with
format-dateTime()to produce locale-aware output.