What is the best way to store a timestamp value in Postgresql in a specific format.
For example I would like to store a TIMESTAMP '2020-07-09 17:29:30.873513Z' down to the minute and ignore seconds value.
I can drop the seconds by using date_trunc('minute', TIMESTAMP '2020-07-09 17:29:30.873513Z') Is there anyway for me to specify this format in the column itself when I create a table?
Don't store formatted timestamps in the database, use timestamp with time zone or timestamp without time zone. You would lose powerful datetime arithmetic, value checking and waste storage space.
To have the values truncated to minute precision, use a BEFORE INSERT trigger that uses date_trunc on the value.
If you want to ascertain that only such values are stored, add a check constraint.
I would like to recommend not to drop seconds or anything from the stored data. Because it will create issues while you process the data later. And if you have to eliminate anything, you may eliminate it while retrieving the data.
Use the following code while creation of table
col_name timestamp without time zone DEFAULT timezone('gmt'::text, now())
This will give you a result as shown in the following image:
Good Luck.
Related
CURRENT SITUATION:
I have a table of wildfire incidents with a timestamp with time zone (timestamptz) field to track when the observation occurred.
Everything in the data creation process is in UTC: the incoming data from the source, the app server that inserts the data, the insert python code (appends a "Z" to the time), and the database server are all in UTC.
The incidents' geographic extent spans several time zones in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
PROBLEM:
I've been querying on a day's worth of data in UTC time, but need to extract out data relative to local time. The midnight to midnight range will be different in each time zone.
My use case now is one day, but I was asked to consider arbitrary time ranges. E.g.: find all incidents in the hottest part of the day (say 10:00 to 18:00) local time.
This table is quite large and I have an index on the timestamptz field right now. Any changes I make will need to work with an index.
Account for daylight saving time.
I have a method to get the time zone for each record, so I don't need help with that.
I created a test table for this with a timestamptz field ts_with and a varchar field for the time zone tz. The following query returns what I want, so I feel like I'm making progress.
SELECT
name, test_tz.ts_with, test_tz.tz,
TIMEZONE(test_tz.tz, test_tz.ts_with) as timezone_with
FROM fire_info.test_tz
WHERE TIMEZONE(test_tz.tz, test_tz.ts_with) BETWEEN
'2018-08-07 00:00:00' AND '2018-08-07 23:59:59';
QUESTIONS:
Will this use my index? I'm thinking the timezone function will avoid it. Any solution for that? I'm considering adding another condition to the where clause that selects on timestamptz buffered by a day on either side. That would use the index and then the timezone function isn't sorting through too much data (~6k records per day during fire season). Would PG figure that out?
The timezone function is giving me DST offsets (e.g.: Denver is currently UTC-06). I assume I'll get standard time after DST ends. If I run a query in December for data in August, will it apply standard time or DST?
thanks!!!
The way you wrote the query, it cannot use an index on ts_with.
To use an index, the condition would have to be of the form ts_with <operator> <constant>, and there is no way to rewrite the query in that fashion.
So you should create a second index on timezone(test_tz.tz, test_tz.ts_with).
I'm in a tricky situation. A client's database timezone was configured for America/Chicago instead of UTC.
From the app, we ask customers to enter useful dates, and sadly those dates are stored 'as-is', so if they entered '2001-01-01 00:00:00' in the text input, that same value will be stored in the DB, and we are ignoring the customer's timezone. We save that info separately.
The table column is of type TIMEZONETZ. So Postgresql will add the America/Chicago timezone offset at the end: Eg '2001-01-01 00:00:00-02'.
Naturally, most of the customers are not in Chicago.
The difficult part, is that, even knowing the customer's timezone, it's really hard to run calculations on the DB given that the datetime was not correctly pre-processed before storing it into the DB.
My attempted solution, is finding a way to extract the datetime string from the column value, and re-convert it to a date with the right timezone. Eg (pseudo-code):
// This is psuedo code
SELECT DATETIME((SELECT date_string(mycolumn) FROM mytable),
TIMEZONE('America/Managua'));
Which would be equivalent in PHP:
$customerInput = '2016-01-01 00:00:00';
$format = 'Y-m-d H:i:s';
$wrongDateStoredInDb = DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $customerInput, new DateTimezone('America/Chicago'));
// In order to fix that date, I'd extract the dateString and create a new DateTime but passing the correct timezone info.
$customerTimezone = new Timezone('America/Bogota');
$customerInput = $wrongDateStoredInDb->format($format); // Assuming we didn't have it already.
$actualDateTime = DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $customerInput, $customerTimezone);
With that kind of information, I'd be able to run calculations on date ranges, with the correct values, eg:
// Pseudo-code
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE fix_date_time(columnWithInvalidDate, `correctTimezone`)::timestamp > `sometimestamp`;
I've read the Postgresql docs, and I've tried everything I could, but nothing seems to work.
Any suggestion is more than welcomed!
So you say that you have a timestamptz column. That is not stored as a string, but as an "instant" in microseconds since the epoch. But when you do an INSERT and give a string, Postgres converts your string into a time value automatically, before storing it. It's been assuming the strings you give it are in Chicago time, since that's the default timezone.
Now you want to reinterpret those times as being in the user's time zone instead. To do that, you can put them back into strings (in Chicago time), and then parse them again but with a different time zone.
Suppose you have data like this:
CREATE TABLE t (id int primary key, ts timestamptz, tz text);
SET TIMEZONE='America/Chicago';
INSERT INTO t
VALUES
(1, '2015-01-01 12:00:00', 'America/Managua'),
(2, '2015-01-01 12:00:00', 'America/Los_Angeles')
;
Then this will give you new times that are what the user really meant:
SET TIMEZONE='America/Chicago';
SELECT ts::text::timestamp AT TIME ZONE tz FROM t;
To break it down: ts::text stringifies the value into Chicago time, then we re-parse it, but into a bare timestamp with no timezone information yet. Then we attach a time zone---not Chicago time, but the user's own timezone.
From here you should be able to handle fixing the bad rows (and not the new ones, if you've already changed the server's default timezone).
One caveat is that if a user entered a time and then changed their timezone, there is no way to recover that, so this will interpret that old time incorrectly.
I have a table that I am using to store iso dates with timezones. I realize that dates should "always" be stored as utc but I have an exception to that rule. The timestamps aren't in any way related to the server they are running on. I want to be able to store an iso date like this:
2016-03-06T01:15:52-06:00
And regardless of the time zone of the server or anything else I want the timestamp returned as:
2016-03-06T01:15:52-06:00
Currently if I insert an iso date it automatically converts it to whatever the server timezone is. My above date gets converted to:
2016-03-06 07:15:52+00 (server is utc)
The only thing I can think of is storing the timezone offset in a separate column, storing my date as utc and then converting using the offset column, horribly messy. Surely there is a way to store my date in one column and get it out the way it was originally created?
Your proposed solution is correct. Or more precisely, it is one of several correct implementations. Any of the following would work:
Store the UTC timestamp in one field, store the offset in another.
Store the local timestamp in one field, store the offset in another.
Store the local date in one field, and store a time with time zone in another. (though time with time zone is generally discouraged...)
Store the UTC timestamps in one field and the local timestamp in another.
The easiest by far is the first one, which you already proposed.
I'd avoid against storing timestamps in text fields, as they tend not to be very efficiently searchable.
Also note - if you're coming from a SQL Server background, you might recall its datetimeoffset type, which stores the local datetime and offset in the field, and uses the UTC equivalent during indexing. It's common to think that Postgres and MySQL's timestamp with time zone would have the same behavior, but they don't. They simply use the session time zone to convert to/from UTC. SQL Server has no concept of a session time zone, and thus the discrepancy.
Be sure to read this part of the Postgres docs.
I used to insert timestamp into my PostgreSQL table in local time. Now I started to use UTC and I need to find a way to convert all dates/times already inserted to UTC time. How am I supposed to do that?
Pretty easy, in timestamp with time zone, all times are already stored in UTC, the conversion is done when you insert or select them (hours are added or subtracted).
The safest way to remove the "with time zone" attribute would be to set your timezone to UTC,
create a new field that is timestamp (without time zone) and set the data correctly, then drop the old field, re-create it without time zone, then copy the data back in, dropping the column.
Seems like a lot of work, but you could verify your results along the way, if you needed to do any updates or back out altogether, you'd know that there was no chance for data loss.
We have an application that fetches data from a source and that source present the data with a timestamp in UTC. When our application saves that data to Postgres, it stores that timestamp in a timestamp column without time zone. The default on postgres in our shop is set to our local time, Mountain Time. So that means, I think, that postgres assumes that timestamp is mountain time. How can I query that column so that my result set thinks it's UTC and not the local time zone?
More cleary stated, I need to perform some offsets on that timestamp (moving it to, say EST) and so the math of doing that is different if the resultset thinks it's UTC than my local time
The Answer by Kouber Saparev is mostly correct, though incorrect about storing a time zone.
Wrong data type in Postgres
a timestamp in UTC. When our application saves that data to Postgres, it stores that timestamp in a timestamp column without time zone.
As noted in his Answer, you are using the wrong data type in your Postgres database. When tracking moments, you must use a column of type TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE. When supplying an input during an insert or update, any accompanying info about time zone or offset-from-UTC is used to adjust into UTC. The accompanying zone/offset is then discarded. If you need to remember the original zone/offset, you will need to define a second column and store that info there yourself.
The other type in Postgres, and the SQL standard, is TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE. This type purposely lacks any concept of time zone or offset-from-UTC. So this type cannot represent moments, cannot store points on the timeline. It stores values that represent potential moments along a range of about 26-27 hours, the range of various time zones around the globe. Use this type only when you mean a date with time-of-day everywhere or anywhere, but not specifically somewhere. Also used when you mean appointments far enough out in the future that we run the risk of politicians changing the offset used in any of the time zones we care about.
Always specify time zone
default on postgres in our shop is set to our local time, Mountain Time
Never depend on the current default time zone of your host OS, the database server, or your tools such as the Java Virtual Machine. Always specify the desired/expected time zone in your code.
Tip: Generally best to work in UTC for data storage, data exchange, and most of your business logic. Adjust from UTC to a time zone only for presentation to the user or where business rules require.
As explained above, Postgres always stores date-time values either in UTC or with no zone/offset at all. Beware: Tools used between you and Postgres may apply a time zone to the UTC value retrieved from the database. While well-intentioned, this anti-feature creates the illusion that the time zone was stored when in fact only UTC was stored in TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE or no zone/offset at all in TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE.
Be aware that any zone information accompanying input to a column of TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE is simply ignored, the date and time-of-day taken as-is and stored.
I need to perform some offsets on that timestamp (moving it to, say EST)
Generally best to use your database just for storage, query, and retrieval of data. For massaging the data like adjusting time zone, do such work in your application. For example, in Java use the industry-leading java.time classes, in .NET the Noda Time project (a port of the predecessor of java.time, the Joda-Time project).
Example code in Java using JDBC 4.2 or later.
LocalDateTime
For a value in a column of TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE we use the corresponding type in Java, LocalDateTime, lacking any concept of time zone or offset-from-UTC.
LocalDateTime ldt = myResultSet.getObject( … , LocalDateTime.class ) ; // Retrieve value from database.
String output = ldt.toString() ; // Generate text representing this date-with-time value in standard ISO 8601 format.
2018-01-23T01:23:45.123
If you know for certain that this date and time was meant for UTC but was incorrectly stored without any zone/offset info, you can apply a zone or offset to repair the damage.
OffsetDateTime odt = ldt.atOffset( ZoneOffset.UTC ); // Apply an offset-from-UTC to a `LocalDateTime` lacking such information. Determines a moment.
OffsetDateTime
For a value in a column of TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE we use the corresponding type in Java, OffsetDateTime (or Instant), representing a moment in UTC.
OffsetDateTime odt = myResultSet.getObject( … , OffsetDateTime.class ) ; // Retrieve value from database.
String output = odt.toString() ; // Generate text representing this date-with-time value in standard ISO 8601 format. A `Z` on the end indicates UTC, pronounced “Zulu”.
2018-01-23T01:23:45.123Z
ZonedDateTime
To see that OffsetDateTime value set in UTC through the lens of the wall-clock time used by the people of regions within the mid-west of North America, specify a time zone such as America/Edmonton or America/Denver.
Specify a proper time zone name in the format of continent/region, such as America/Montreal, Africa/Casablanca, or Pacific/Auckland. Never use the 2-4 letter abbreviation such as EST or IST as they are not true time zones, not standardized, and not even unique(!).
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Denver" ) ;
ZonedDateTime zdt = odt.atZoneSameInstant( z ) ;
See this code run live at IdeOne.com. We see the same moment but with a different wall-clock time.
2018-01-22T18:23:45.123-07:00[America/Denver]
Beware of tools & middleware injecting a time zone
Unfortunately, many tools and middleware will volunteer to apply some default time zone to a moment retrieved from the database. While well-intentioned, this creates the illusion of the zone having been a part of the stored data when in fact the time zone was added after storage, upon retrieval. This anti-feature creates much confusion. I wish all the tools were clear and truthful by reporting the moment in UTC, as it was stored.
If you use Java, with JDBC 4.2 and later, you can exchange java.time (JSR 310) (tutorial) objects with the database and avoid this time zone injection.
There are two data types handling timestamps in PostgreSQL - timestamp, and timestamptz (timestamp with time zone). The latter stores the time zone along with the timestamp itself.
If you are using just a timestamp without time zone, then there is no way for the result set to think whether the timestamp is UTC or not. It is just a timestamp. It is up to the client application to interpret it and give it some time zone meaning.
On the contrary, if you use timestamptz, then PostgreSQL knows the time zone of that timestamp, and then it can calculate time zone offsets properly for you.
db=# select now();
now
-------------------------------
2014-12-04 19:27:06.044703+02
(1 row)
db=# select timezone('est', now());
timezone
----------------------------
2014-12-04 12:27:06.044703
(1 row)
So, back on the problem posed. You need to make sure that first the data is imported properly and then - when needed, it is returned and displayed properly to the end user. You have two options:
Continue using timestamp
In that case both the writing app and the reading app need to know that all the timestamps in the database are UTC and calculate offsets accordingly.
Switch to timestamptz
Then the only thing that the apps need to know is their own time zone, they just have to declare it after connecting to PostgreSQL and leave the rest to the database.
For example, let's connect as a writing app and declare our time zone as UTC.
db=# create table x (data timestamptz);
CREATE TABLE
db=# set timezone='utc';
SET
db=# insert into x values (now());
INSERT 0 1
db=# select * from x;
data
-------------------------------
2014-12-04 20:02:08.692329+00
(1 row)
Now, let's say a reading app connects and is in the EST time zone.
db=# set timezone='est';
SET
db=# select * from x;
data
-------------------------------
2014-12-04 15:02:08.692329-05
(1 row)
Changing the client time zone setting changes the way all the timestamps are returned, but that's the case only if you use timestamptz - timestamp with time zone. If you cannot switch to this data type, then the application will have to take care of all this magic.