5.3.4 Date and Time Handling

The functions col and format_time use Unix time, seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC, as the time format. Internally the database uses the native Symbian time representation that provides greater precision and range than the Unix time. The native Symbian time format is a 64-bit value that represents microseconds since January 1st 0 AD 00:00:00 local time, nominal Gregorian. BC dates are represented by negative values. Since converting this format to Unix time and back may cause slight round-off errors, you have to use the functions col_rawtime and format_rawtime if you need to be able to handle these values with full precision.

The representation of date and time literals in SQL statements depends on the current system date and time format. The only accepted ordering of day, month, and year is the one that the system is currently configured to use. The recommended way to form date/time literals for SQL statements is to use the functions format_time or format_rawtime that format the given date/time values properly according to the current system's date/time format settings.

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