Re: Question on the date after '31-DEC-9999' in Oracle

From: Frank van Bortel <frank.van.bortel_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 15:42:07 +0200
Message-ID: <d71v2n$4st$3@news1.zwoll1.ov.home.nl>

Holger Baer wrote:
> Frank van Bortel wrote:
>

>>> It's even history-proof, what with all that kinky calendar
>>> corrections during the last 2000 years, e.g
>>>
>>>
>>> SQL> select to_date ('06.10.1582', 'dd.mm.yyyy') whats_that from dual;
>>>
>>> WHATS_THAT
>>> ----------
>>> 15.10.1582
>>>
>>> As you recall, after Oct 4th 1582 the next day was Oct 15th (I'm not
>>> suggesting personal experience here) ;-)
>>>
>>
>>
>> Only in certain parts of the world... DB2, for one, uses another
>> algorithm, which is equally valid, but just with different results.

>
>
> Huh? The Julian Calendar ended on Oct 4th and the Gregorian Calendar
> started
> the very next day with Oct 15th 1582, although it took quite a while to
> catch on
> outside Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, especially in non-catholic
> countries.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
>
> Or are you saying, that DB2 does take the regional settings into account?
> That'd be another thing, but then it would, apparently without saying,
> change
> the underlying calendar.
>
> What am I missing?
>
> Holger

There has been a thread on who used what - I recall there were differences, similar to the story below. DB2 is swedish?

Sweden decided to make a gradual change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. By dropping every leap year from 1700 through 1740 the eleven superfluous days would be omitted and from 1 Mar 1740 they would be in sync with the Gregorian calendar. (But in the meantime they would be in sync with nobody!)

So 1700 (which should have been a leap year in the Julian calendar) was not a leap year in Sweden. However, by mistake 1704 and 1708 became leap years. This left Sweden out of synchronisation with both the Julian and the Gregorian world, so they decided to go back to the Julian calendar. In order to do this, they inserted an extra day in 1712, making that year a double leap year! So in 1712, February had 30 days in Sweden.

Quoted from
http://www.phpbbserver.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=10&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15&mforum=dizwellforum

ANd:

http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/node3.html#SECTION003140000000000000000

-- 
Regards,
Frank van Bortel

Received on Wed May 25 2005 - 08:42:07 CDT