Re: Oracle DATE datatype storage.

Randy Fought <FOUGHTRL_at_CTRVAX.VANDERBILT.EDU> wrote:

> Internally Oracle stores the DATE datatype in seven bytes.
>One byte for each of the century, year, month, day, hour, minute
>and second.
 

> We don't care about the hour, minute and second and we have
>many dates to store. This seems quite wasteful to store this in
>seven bytes when it could be done in four. Is there a way to internally
>store the date in four bytes?

Not if you want to use the DATE datatype. In cases like the one you've described, I usually store the date in a character format, and perform a TO_DATE on the column when reading and a TO_CHAR on the column when writing. If you do it in this manner, you won't be able to use all the Oracle date functions unless you bring them into a DATE field and then apply the functions.

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