Re: timestamps cannot be created without time zones

From: Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net>
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>, Rainer Mager <rmager(at)vgkk(dot)com>, pgsql-bugs(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: timestamps cannot be created without time zones
Date: 2001-08-24 14:55:17
Message-ID: 200108241455.f7OEtHg00709@candle.pha.pa.us
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> Tom Lane writes:
>
> > Timezone handling in PG is dependent on the underlying OS' timezone
> > database, which doesn't go back further than 1901 in any Unix that
> > I've heard of. You should realize of course that the very notion of
> > timezone was only standardized in the 1800s, so attaching a timezone
> > to dates much older than that would be a dubious practice anyway...
>
> Thus Rainer's point is that when having times both before and after 1901
> in the same data set you get inconsistencies. This seems like a good
> reason to introduce a true 'timestamp without time zone' type.

Let me see if I follow here. If I am in the Eastern timezone and enter
a time for 9pm, 1/1/1850, and someone else in the Central timezone
enters the same time, if I look at the two dates from the Eastern
timezone I will see mine as 9pm and the other as 10pm?

Wow, I wonder if that is bad?

It seems I would mix these in a table so it is the underlying data
representation that may be the problem. Yikes.

--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
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