Why is my CAML query working in CAML Builder but not in the application?

Question

I have a CAML query that queries a calendar list and I want it to return all the items in the list with an EventDate of today or later, ordered in ascending order. The CAML query I'm using is this:

<Query><Where><Geq><FieldRef Name="EventDate" /><Value Type="DateTime"><Today/></Value></Geq></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name="EventDate" Ascending="True" /></OrderBy></Query>

When I run the query in U2U's CAML builder I see the results I expect but when it's run in the WebPart I'm using to render the list into a page all of the items are fetched including those with a date earlier than today. Here's the relevant part of the code:

Dim site As SPSite = SPContext.Current.Site
    Using web As SPWeb = site.OpenWeb
        Dim controlHTML As New StringBuilder()
        Try
            Dim list As SPList = web.Lists("Diary")
            defaultViewURL = list.DefaultViewUrl
            controlHTML.Append(FirstPart)

    Dim itemsByDateQuery As New SPQuery
    itemsByDateQuery.Query = "<Query><Where><Geq><FieldRef Name=""EventDate"" /><Value Type=""DateTime""><Today/></Value></Geq></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name=""EventDate"" Ascending=""True"" /></OrderBy></Query>"
    Dim items As SPListItemCollection = list.GetItems(itemsByDateQuery)
            Dim itemsToShowCount As Integer = Math.Min(items.Count, Me.ItemsToShow)
            controlHTML.AppendLine(DiaryTable(items, itemsToShowCount))
    controlHTML.AppendLine("<p>" & System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(itemsByDateQuery.Query) & "</p>")
Catch ex As Exception
    controlHTML.AppendLine(String.Format("<p>Couldn&rsquo;t render the list. The error was {0}", ex.Message))
    End Try
controlHTML.AppendLine(LastPart)
Me.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl(controlHTML.ToString))
End Using   

Am I missing something obvious here? I don't understand why the query is returning items with an EventDate earlier than today when run in the WebPart but not when the CAML is run in CAML Builder.

Answer 1

You should remove <Query> and </Query> and use only inner XML. So in your case the .Query should be:

itemsByDateQuery.Query = "<Where><Geq><FieldRef Name=""EventDate"" /><Value Type=""DateTime""><Today/></Value></Geq></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name=""EventDate"" Ascending=""True"" /></OrderBy>"