From: "cnliou" <cnliou@so-net.net.tw>
Reply-To: cnliou@so-net.net.tw
Subject: Inserting timestamp values from windowz application
Message-ID: <1070386056.30928.cnliou@so-net.net.tw>
To: "" <pgsql-interfaces@postgresql.org>
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 01:27:36 +0800 (CST)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain

Hi!

I am inserting timestamp values from C++Builder project1.exe 
compiled with ZEOSLIB on Win98 (set to time zone UTC+8 
hours) into the table:

CREATE TABLE (c1 TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE);

After project1.exe connects to postgres via libpq.dll, the 
query

SHOW TIME ZONE

returns "unknown", which is as expected. Then I do the 
insert from project1.exe:

INSERT INTO test VALUES (CAST('2003-1-1' AS TIMESTAMP));

What weird is that this datetime value is saved to column c1 
as 2002-12-31 16:00:00 UTC. This means that some component 
among zeoslib, libpq, win98, or postgres is _too_ smart that 
it assumes the to-insert value being local time at time zone 
UTC+08 and converts the value to UTC.

This automatic behavior is not what I would like to see. I 
guess zeoslib is unlikely to be the component that does the 
conversion. How does this smart component know that the 
to-insert value stands for the local time at UTC+08 time 
zone?

I need a "manual" way to explicitly tell postgres the 
client's time zone by sending from project1.exe the query  
"SET TIME ZONE -5" or the like to postgres.

Would anyone kindly offer some solutions to my requirement 
or explanations for the symptom?

Regards,

CN