Thread: timestamps in Australia

set timezone to 'Australia/Sydney';
set timezone_abbreviations to 'Australia';
set datestyle to 'SQL,DMY';

select '2011-04-03 01:00'::timestamptz+generate_series(0,3)*'1h'::interval,generate_series(0,3);

notice how the middle two look the same.
(this is Australias DST change-back)

This has the potential to cause all sorts of problems, especially in
triggers where now() seems to return a string which gets
reinterpreted...

other than setting datestyle to 'ISO,DMY' is there a way to fix this?

How do the Australians handle this?

Apparently the zic database (where the string 'EST' originates has
been this way since 2004.)



select '2011-04-03 02:00:00 EST'::timestamptz - '1h':: interval;  -- invariant ?

--
ɹǝpun uʍop ɯoɹɟ sƃuıʇǝǝɹ⅁

Jasen Betts <jasen@xnet.co.nz> writes:
> set timezone to 'Australia/Sydney';
> set timezone_abbreviations to 'Australia';
> set datestyle to 'SQL,DMY';

> select '2011-04-03 01:00'::timestamptz+generate_series(0,3)*'1h'::interval,generate_series(0,3);

> notice how the middle two look the same.
> (this is Australias DST change-back)

Yeah, we just follow the Olson timezone database here, and they
intentionally don't change the abbrevation between Aussie standard
and summer time.  See the notes starting about line 650 in
src/timezone/data/australasia --- this issue is apparently of very
long standing and has been debated repeatedly.

> How do the Australians handle this?

I'd go with Paul Eggert's advice in the aforementioned notes:

#   Here I tend to agree with the point (most recently made by Chris
#   Newman) that unique abbreviations should not be essential for proper
#   operation of software.  We have other instances of ambiguity

IOW, don't rely on those abbreviations to mean anything.

            regards, tom lane