Data Factory Variable Comparison not working as expected.

Question

Hi All,
I'm running a simple pipeline that takes an input variable, adds 1 day to it, and compares it to another variable.
However, the comparison isn't working as I'm expecting it to. Variable boolTest is set to false after the update of the extractDate variable.
Is there a datatype conversion I need to do to make this work as I expect?

{  
  "name": "Variable Comparison",  
  "properties": {  
    "activities": [  
      {  
        "name": "Set tempExtractDate",  
        "type": "SetVariable",  
        "dependsOn": [],  
        "userProperties": [],  
        "typeProperties": {  
          "variableName": "tempExtractDate",  
          "value": {  
            "value": "@adddays(variables('extractDate'),1)",  
            "type": "Expression"  
          }  
        }  
      },  
      {  
        "name": "Update extractDate",  
        "type": "SetVariable",  
        "dependsOn": [  
          {  
            "activity": "Set tempExtractDate",  
            "dependencyConditions": [  
              "Succeeded"  
            ]  
          }  
        ],  
        "userProperties": [],  
        "typeProperties": {  
          "variableName": "extractDate",  
          "value": {  
            "value": "@variables('tempExtractDate')",  
            "type": "Expression"  
          }  
        }  
      },  
      {  
        "name": "Update boolTest",  
        "type": "SetVariable",  
        "dependsOn": [  
          {  
            "activity": "Update extractDate",  
            "dependencyConditions": [  
              "Succeeded"  
            ]  
          }  
        ],  
        "userProperties": [],  
        "typeProperties": {  
          "variableName": "boolTest",  
          "value": {  
            "value": "@equals(variables('endDate'),variables('extractDate'))",  
            "type": "Expression"  
          }  
        }  
      }  
    ],  
    "variables": {  
      "extractDate": {  
        "type": "String",  
        "defaultValue": "2020-05-29T00:00:00Z"  
      },  
      "tempExtractDate": {  
        "type": "String"  
      },  
      "endDate": {  
        "type": "String",  
        "defaultValue": "2020-05-30T00:00:00Z"  
      },  
      "boolTest": {  
        "type": "Boolean"  
      }  
    },  
    "annotations": []  
  }  
}  

Regards,
-rob

Answer 1

Hi @RobBaratWOW,

While comparing the two variables (dates in your case), you need to make sure that they are in the same format. To do so, you can use the formatDateTime function provided by Azure Data Factory. In your "Update boolTest" activity, please try replacing the expression :

 @equals(variables('endDate'),variables('extractDate'))

to

 @equals(formatDateTime(variables('endDate')),formatDateTime(variables('extractDate')))

Hope this helps.