Re: [warning: largely off-topic] Re: Data type confusion

Allan,

> Thanks for your explanation.  I'd like to get hold of a copy of
> SQL99/PKG001 to see what they have actually defined.

Tom posted a section of this.

> I think the INTERVAL type sux :-)  Long rant follows - consider
> hitting the delete button now.

Au contraire.  I replying to the list because I think that your rant is
actually relevant to all date/time development.  (If your post wasn't to
the list, I'll forward it).

> In this area, there are a number of different concepts that it would
> make sense to separate.
<snip>
> What's an INTERVAL supposed to be?  DUTIME, DLDATE, TIMEU or
> something that really belongs to the CALENDAR?
> 
> All of the above?

That is a very important question to answer.  Here we have an
unfortunate dilemma:

On the one horn: Absolute time, or UTIME, is *much* easier for a
database to deal with since it follows fixed rules.  LTIME or
DUTIME/DLDATE etc. follow rules which may change from year to year and
country to country (or state to state in the US!), making it impossible
to compile such date and time rules as part of a database.

On the other horn: Of course, what many/most users want is their local
time and date according to local rules (admins of worldwide web servers
exempted).

So ... my first question:  surely someone has grappled with this problem
already?  Surely some professor of C.S. in a university somewhere has an
answer for us?

-Josh

P.S. My head hurts, now.







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