Dates and Times

In SQL dates and times are written as strings, so are enclosed in single quotes (or dollar quotes). But the system must be told that the data is a date, or a time, etc.[1] The easy way to type this is to follow the string with two colons and then the name of the appropriate data type. This is best illustrated with an example:

SELECT '1707-05-23'::DATE;

Input and Output Representations

Date values are always output in YYYY-MM-DD format.[2] This is unambiguous and more universal than most date representations.

Date values may be input in a wide variety of formats. Ideally, they would be input as YYYY-MM-DD but when this is not the case the system first attempts to recognize dates as if they were written in MM-DD-YYYY format.

For further information on date and time representation see the PostgreSQL documentation, either that on dates and times or the details of date/time interpretation.

Time Zones

SokweDB contains few, if any, time-zone aware columns. For this reason, and reasons given below, most users will not need to concern themselves with time zones.

Date + time combinations, called timestamps, may or may not be time zone aware. This is also true of plain, 24-hour, time values. Time zone aware values display differently depending on the time zone in which they are viewed – or at least they can display differently. A time zone aware time value which displays as 10:00AM in the US/Eastern time zone would display as 9:00AM in the US/Central time zone.

Dates and times without a time zone, most time-related data recorded in SokweDB, are as-of the time recorded in the field. So in Gombe time, and the time values won’t change no matter where viewed.

Some other dates and times, perhaps those involving administrative actions like, perhaps, the automatically recorded time of database updates, may be time zone aware.

By default, time-zone aware data is input and output in the UCT time zone. If you wish to have time-related data be input and output in a different time zone you must tell the server which time zone you are in.[3] This does not happen automatically. Further, the change to your time zone only lasts for the duration of your connection to the database. Practically speaking, this usually, depending on the tool you use to access the database, means that you must change your time zone every time you submit SQL statements to the server.

To sum up, most of the time-related values you work with will be in Gombe time. The rest are in UCT unless you put some work into changing your time zone.

[1]

The string is said to be cast to the desired data type.

[2]

This is the ISO 8601 format.

[3]

E.g. SET TIME ZONE 'US/Mountain';

Page last generated: 2025-04-01 22:52:03 UTC