In xpath why can I use greater-than symbol > but not less-than <

Question

Using c#3 compiled transforms the following seems to work just fine...

<xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="$valA > $valB">
        <xsl:value-of select="$maxUnder" />
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$valA &lt; $valC">
        <xsl:value-of select="$maxOver" />
    </xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>

However if i dare use a < in place of < it gives an error...

<xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="$valA > $valB">
        <xsl:value-of select="$maxUnder" />
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$valA < $valC">
        <xsl:value-of select="$maxOver" />
    </xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>

System.Xml.XmlException: '<', hexadecimal value 0x3C, is an invalid attribute character.

So why is > ok and not < ?

Answer 1

Because > isn't a reserved character in XML, but < is.

From section 2.4 of the XML 1.0 spec (5th edition):

The ampersand character (&) and the left angle bracket (<) must not appear in their literal form, except when used as markup delimiters, or within a comment, a processing instruction, or a CDATA section. If they are needed elsewhere, they must be escaped using either numeric character references or the strings "&" and "<" respectively. The right angle bracket (>) may be represented using the string ">", and must, for compatibility, be escaped using either ">" or a character reference when it appears in the string "]]>" in content, when that string is not marking the end of a CDATA section.