Re: Strange time zone +00:53:28 - Mailing list pgsql-bugs

From Karsten Düsterloh
Subject Re: Strange time zone +00:53:28
Date
Msg-id 518CEDFD.3@tal.de
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Strange time zone +00:53:28  (hubert depesz lubaczewski <depesz@depesz.com>)
Responses Re: Strange time zone +00:53:28  (Curd Reinert <Curd.Reinert@ppi.de>)
List pgsql-bugs
hubert depesz lubaczewski wrote:
>> Under Pg 8.3, we used the timestamp
>>   0001-01-01 00:00:00+01
>> as an easy-to-remember marker for 'dunno, but predates any usual
>> business dates' for fields of type timestamp with time zone.
>
> Why didn't you use "-infinity" for this?

Back when that value was chosen, we had some legacy software around
which did not handle that value well. Definitely worth reevaluating.
OTOH, Delphi4 + Win98 + ODBC is definitely choking on '0001-12-31
23:53:28+00:53:28 BC'. ;-)

> It's not a bug. Berlin timezone that far away has such not-round offset.
>
> In time zone database you can find:
>
> # Zone  NAME            GMTOFF  RULES   FORMAT  [UNTIL]
> Zone    Europe/Berlin   0:53:28 -       LMT     1893 Apr

Thanks!

That does explain the number as such (I somehow only found the Sicily
stuff mentioned further down in the time zone database file), why it's
popping up now and that's just a display problem.

The question remains, though, where this special value comes from …


Karsten



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