Can SYSDATE ever fail?

From: David Weigel <weigel_at_value.net>
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 16:42:31 GMT
Message-ID: <374588da.171189747_at_news.value.net>

I have a customer running our software (CSI-MAXIMUS M/4) on Oracle 7.3 on NT. We have a simple little update in one of our C programs that says:

  EXEC SQL update fiscal_cal

           set bill_close_dt   = SYSDATE,
               login_id_close  = :login_user
           where pd = :period;

Before this statement runs, both fiscal_cal.bill_close_dt ("date") and login_id_close ("char(3)") are null for the row in question. Strangely, after the statement is run, fiscal_cal.login_id_close is set properly, but bill_close_dt is still null! There are no reported errors. The problem is sporadic, happening maybe once out of every three times run. Looking through the Oracle 7.3 documentation, I can't see how "SYSDATE" can ever result in no value. The wrong value because of NLS or other settings, sure, but none at all?

Does this ring any bells with anyone, like known bugs fixed at some point? Any ideas? Thanky.

-------------------------+--------------------------+
David Weigel             | Friday the 13th          |
CSI-MAXIMUS              | comes on a Thursday      |
San Francisco, CA        | this month.              |
weigel_at_value.net         |                          |

Received on Fri May 21 1999 - 18:42:31 CEST