[rules-users] issue with date comparison

Hi, I've a fact which is retrieved from database using hibernate. The date format that comes in is "yyyy-mm-dd", java.util.Date. The fact has two variables *startDate* and *endDate. *I want to check if the the *current date* lies between these two. Since the current date is not constant I'm trying to use a global variable, which I would setbefore firing the rules. My question is what should be the datatype of this global variable. If I use Date the format is completely different. If I use String it says that date can't be compared with string. However if I hard code the value of current date in "*dd-MMM-yyyy*" rule fire fine. Can someone please suggest me a way to achieve this. Thanks in advance. -- cheers Sumatheja Dasararaju