On May 31, 7:23 am, Daniel Swarbrick <[email protected]> wrote: > I can almost hear the collective sigh as this topic once again rears > up ;-) > Thanks for bringing it up. I lurk both here and on db-sig, and intend to use your well done research to once again attempt an update of the db-api PEP, which also does not address time zone aware time. I like the idea of standardizing a cross-platform TZ aware data column. [...] > The way I see it, there are a few options for storage of timestamps in > SQLite (whose docs clearly acknowledge that it does not officially > support a timestamp column type). > > 1. Store timestamps as a Unix epoch value (integer). This is fast, and > will ensure correct date sorting. On the other hand, it's not really > human-friendly if manually browsing table data in SQLite.
Not only is the epoch limited in range, I would be wary of using any storage based on the python time module (as opposed to datetime). We have discovered enough subtle bugs in the Windows and IronPython implementations that we gave up trying to get an accurate test of the python time option on adodbapi. Things that worked correctly for me in North America would fail for Mark Hammond in Australia. It is a maze of twisty little passages. We simply recommend that everyone use datetime. On the other hand, I found it necessary to convert date-time values to ISO format strings in order to feed them to Microsoft ACCESS databases in some cases, and that works well. But again, as with SQLite, the DB has no concept of time zones. In the absence of actual time zone support in the database, any action taken by django is going to inconvenience somebody, and will likely not be compatible with non- django use of the same database. Perhaps it would work to store the pickled tz-aware datetime on brain-damaged databases. But, is it reasonable to use an application-specific method to extend the capability of a database engine? -- Vernon Cole -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en.
