Rene, Since the FE/BE protocol deals only with string representations of values, the protocol doesn't have too much to do with it directly. It is what happens on the client and server sides that is important here. Under the covers the server stores all timestamp values as GMT. When a select statement queries one the value is converted to the session timezone and formated to a string that includes the timezone offset used (i.e. 2001-09-09 14:24:35.12-08 which the database had stored as 2001-09-09 22:24:35.12 GMT). The client then needs to handle this accordingly and convert to a different timezone if desired. On an insert or update the client and server are essentially doing the opposite. The client converts the timestamp value to a string and then the server converts that string to GMT for storage. If the client does not pass the timezone offset (i.e. 2001-09-09 14:24:35.12 instead of 2001-09-09 14:24:35.12-08) then the server needs to guess the timezone and will use the session timezone. Now when it comes to the JDBC code this is what happens. (Since you didn't state what specific problem you where having I will give a general overview). When the JDBC driver connects to the server it does one thing timestamp related. It does a 'set datestyle to "ISO"' so that the client and the server both know how the strings are formated. I don't know what the session timezone defaults to, but it really shouldn't matter since the server always sends the timezone offset as part of the string representation of the timestamp value. Therefore the JDBC client can always figure out how to convert the string to a Java Timestamp object. On the insert/update opperation the JDBC client converts the Timestamp object to GMT (see the logic in setTimestamp() of PreparedStatement) and then builds the string to send to the server as the formated date/time plus the timezone offset used (GMT in this case). Thus it does something that looks like: "2001-09-09 14:24:35.12" + "+00". When the server gets this string it has all the information it needs to convert to GMT for storage (it actually doesn't need to do anything since the value is clearly already in GMT). I hope this helps to answer your questions. If you could post a bit more about the issue you are having I might be able to be more specific. thanks, --Barry Rene Pijlman wrote: > I'm working on a problem in the JDBC driver that's related to > timezones. > > How does PostgreSQL handle timezones in the FE/BE protocol > exactly? > > When a client sends a time or timestamp value to the server via > the FE/BE protocol, should that be: > 1) a value in the client's timezone? > 2) a value in the server's timezone? > 3) a value in a common frame of reference (GMT/UTC)? > 4) any value with an explicit timezone? > > And how should a time or timestamp value returned by the server > be interpreted in the client interface? > > And how does this all depend on the timezone setting of the > server? > > Regards, > René Pijlman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate > subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives? http://www.postgresql.org/search.mpl
