TIMESTAMP data type

The TIMESTAMP data type stores a point in time containing the year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and fraction of a second stored to six decimal places.

Syntax

TIMESTAMP

The format in which TIMESTAMP values are retrieved as strings by applications is controlled by the timestamp_format creation parameter. For example, the TIMESTAMP value 2010/04/01T23:59:59.999999 can be returned to an application as 2010/04/01 23:59:59 or as April 1, 2010 23:59:59.999999, depending on the timestamp_format creation parameter.

A TIMESTAMP value requires 8 bytes of storage.

Although the range of possible dates for the TIMESTAMP data type is the same as the DATE type (covering years 0001 to 9999), the useful range of TIMESTAMP date types is from 1600-02-28 23:59:59 to 7911-01-01 00:00:00. Before and after this range, the hours and minutes portion of the TIMESTAMP value is not retained.

When a TIMESTAMP value is converted to TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE, the local timezone offset on the system is used in the final result.

TIMESTAMP data type

Syntax

Remarks

See also