From: Christopher Browne <cbbrowne@acm.org>
Subject: Re: timestamptz - problems
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 11:18:55 -0500
Organization: cbbrowne Computing Inc
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Message-ID: <m3y8rcb500.fsf@wolfe.cbbrowne.com>
References: <s027a12f.012@smtp.gosh.nhs.uk>
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To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org

Oops! RoberM1@gosh.nhs.uk ("Mark Roberts") was seen spray-painting on a wall:
> Hi im using 'timestamptz' in a function called: 'getdate' to enter
> the start and finish time into a db field, however the date appears
> to be inserted into the db in a random format, i wish for it to only
> be entered into the db as DD-MM-YYYY (European,UK). I understand
> this is probably a very simple problem to resolve but thus far I
> have failed, can anyone plz help.

It seems to me that you're asking the wrong question.

The data type you should normally use for handling timestamps is
"timestamptz," which records the date, time and time zone.

It is certainly _NOT_ inserted in a "random format;" there is NO
ambiguity about what the date and time types in PostgreSQL store in
the database.

What _might_ vary is how a date happens to be _displayed_, and that is
something that you might reasonably want to control.
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