Re: Oracle dates and timezones

/ hpcc01:comp.databases.oracle / tkyte_at_us.oracle.com (Thomas J Kyte) / 7:17 pm Mar 25, 1996 /

>How do you sort it?
>How do compare them?

   Remember this is a way to go around the single time carried by oracle date    type. I guess there is no other resort than do-it-yourself. I would rather    store Universal time UTC & a time zone parameter. That will take care of    sorting and comparing.

>Can you trust you client to give you the correct timezone information?
>(rhetorical question, the answer is no).

   answer 1: if a general open question, yes. This is done all the times.    answer 2: if as an input entered by a user: no.

>If all you have is one computer (no pc's, no mac's, just a single server and
>all host based apps) then we should store timezones.

   I would say : no need for a timezone if there is only 1 computer. Apparently    the time is the time as seen by THE computer itself.

>If you have more then one computer (clients and A server or clients and many
>servers) spread out, then storing the time zone based on what the client tells
>us would be 'wrong'.

   Agree. And it should be designed right. Those are security concerns (data    integrity) that are easily addressed if the designers are aware of it. Received on Tue Mar 26 1996 - 00:00:00 CET