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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-637?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=15928783#comment-15928783
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Julian Hyde commented on ARROW-637:
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When you say a "timezone in the Timestamp flatbuffers type" do you mean that
the timezone is stored in the type, or in the value? If you have 1M values,
would they each have their own timezone?
If it's stored in the type, then [~julienledem] is correct that it would be a
good way to emulate SQL's TIMESTAMP type. Just store UTC in the type.
If the timeonze is stored in the value, then you have re-created SQL's
{{TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE}} type. Think of each value consisting of a
(milliseconds, timezone) pair. Note that this is much more rarely used, and
lower priority IMHO. (PostgreSQL has a {{TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE}} type but
they botched it -- they don't store a timezone, so it is interpreted as an
Instant, similar to java.util.Date. I do see value in having an "instant" type,
in addition to a "zoneless timestamp" type, just don't confuse everyone by
calling it "timestamp with timezone".)
I don't know whether offsets, e.g. "+7:30" are valid as Olson timezone names,
but you should allow these. SQL's {{TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE}} type uses
offsets, not timezone names, IIRC.
> [Format] Add time zone metadata to Timestamp type
> -------------------------------------------------
>
> Key: ARROW-637
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-637
> Project: Apache Arrow
> Issue Type: New Feature
> Components: Format
> Reporter: Wes McKinney
> Assignee: Wes McKinney
>
> As a metadata-only convenience, it would be useful to have an optional Olson
> time zone name in the {{Timestamp}} flatbuffers type:
> https://github.com/apache/arrow/blob/master/format/Message.fbs#L94
> Null or length-0 string would indicate that the data has no time zone (UTC)
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