I think the best way is to always store an unsigned integer epoch time. Cheers, -Dana
-----Original Message----- From: David T. Ashley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 11:12 AM To: Chris McKeever Cc: mysql@lists.mysql.com Subject: Re: Best Practice: Timezones and web development On 2/28/07, Chris McKeever <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Does anyone have any resources, guides, insight into the best practice > for storing date/time information when developing a custom web app? > > I am mainly concerned with how the TZ should be stored? Should it go > in as UTC and the code accounts for the user TZ? How does one handle > tracking the users Daylight Savings etc Best practice is that all times maintained in a database (or anywhere on the server) are UTC, and are only converted to local timezone and/or adjusted to daylight savings time as required to display data for a specific user. This means, for example, that Randy in California and Sven in Sweden (different users on the same system) will see the same record from a database displayed with different times (because the time is converted to their local timzone before display). Now, as far as the best way to implement the two paragraphs above (especially with DST), I have not a clue. ----------------------------------------- ******************************************************************* *** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error destroy it immediately. ****************************************************** **************** Wal-Mart Confidential **************************** ******************************************
