Weird situation on template condition
 

Ok guys, Here's the deal. I'm doing a simple if condition

<vb:if condition="$channelid == $url.channelid">

....do something

Here's the problem, I can't get the two to equal each other. See the screen of the var_dump.

{vb:debugvardump $channelid} = string(2) 36
{vb:debugvardump $url.channelid} = string(2) 36

<vb:if condition="$.urlchannelid == 36"> FALSE

<vb:if condition="$channelid == 36">TRUE

So obviously, there is an issue with $url.channelid.
I tried this
{vb:set url.channelid, '36'}, still nothing. I'm at a loss here because the two values are equal.

I'm not too up-to-date regarding the vBulletin 5 template syntax, but shouldn't the template condition be formatted this way:

I tried it that way as well. This has been mind boggling.

Hmmm maybe it's part of an object?
Try $url->channelid in the condition.

Can you post the entire code? There might something else going on somewhere.

That was most of the code. url.channelid came from an api call and the other was an existing template variable.
I got tired of messing with it, scrapped it and went another direction.