Thread: Custom datestyle for timestamps

  Hi,

SET DATESTYLE takes predefined keywords such as ISO or US as arguments,
but I can't find a way to specify a custom format string for
timestamps.

What I'd like to find is an equivalent to Oracle's
ALTER SESSION SET nls_date_format='DD/MM/YYYY HH24' for example,
where the format follows the sames rules than to_char and to_date.
This sets an implicit format for every subsequent text<->date
conversion.

Is there a way I could achieve that with postgres? A psql-only solution
would be good enough for me.

Thanks,

--
 Daniel

On Thursday 05 March 2009 00:19:02 Daniel Verite wrote:
> SET DATESTYLE takes predefined keywords such as ISO or US as arguments,
> but I can't find a way to specify a custom format string for
> timestamps.

There is no support for that.

> What I'd like to find is an equivalent to Oracle's
> ALTER SESSION SET nls_date_format='DD/MM/YYYY HH24' for example,
> where the format follows the sames rules than to_char and to_date.
> This sets an implicit format for every subsequent text<->date
> conversion.

... or that.

    Peter Eisentraut wrote:

> On Thursday 05 March 2009 00:19:02 Daniel Verite wrote:
> > SET DATESTYLE takes predefined keywords such as ISO or US as
arguments,
> > but I can't find a way to specify a custom format string for
> > timestamps.
>
> There is no support for that.
>
> > What I'd like to find is an equivalent to Oracle's
> > ALTER SESSION SET nls_date_format='DD/MM/YYYY HH24' for example,
> > where the format follows the sames rules than to_char and to_date.
> > This sets an implicit format for every subsequent text<->date
> > conversion.
>
> ... or that.

I think it would valuable to have at least a default format that
doesn't include the sub-second precision, since it typically adds 7
characters that enlarge output columns in a way that is generally
useless to the human eyes. Do other users agree with that?

Best regards,
--
 Daniel

"Daniel Verite" <daniel@manitou-mail.org> writes:
> I think it would valuable to have at least a default format that
> doesn't include the sub-second precision, since it typically adds 7
> characters that enlarge output columns in a way that is generally
> useless to the human eyes. Do other users agree with that?

If you think it's useless, just store your timestamps in a timestamp(0)
column.

            regards, tom lane