path: root/doc/src/sgml/datetime.sgml

<!-- doc/src/sgml/datetime.sgml -->

 <appendix id="datetime-appendix">
  <title>Date/Time Support</title>

  <para>
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> uses an internal heuristic
   parser for all date/time input support. Dates and times are input as
   strings, and are broken up into distinct fields with a preliminary
   determination of what kind of information can be in the
   field. Each field is interpreted and either assigned a numeric
   value, ignored, or rejected.
   The parser contains internal lookup tables for all textual fields,
   including months, days of the week, and time zones.
  </para>

  <para>
   This appendix includes information on the content of these
   lookup tables and describes the steps used by the parser to decode
   dates and times.
  </para>

  <sect1 id="datetime-input-rules">
   <title>Date/Time Input Interpretation</title>

   <para>
    Date/time input strings are decoded using the following procedure.
   </para>

   <procedure>
    <step>
     <para>
      Break the input string into tokens and categorize each token as
      a string, time, time zone, or number.
     </para>

     <substeps>
      <step>
       <para>
        If the numeric token contains a colon (<literal>:</literal>), this is
        a time string. Include all subsequent digits and colons.
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        If the numeric token contains a dash (<literal>-</literal>), slash
        (<literal>/</literal>), or two or more dots (<literal>.</literal>), this is
        a date string which might have a text month.  If a date token has
        already been seen, it is instead interpreted as a time zone
        name (e.g., <literal>America/New_York</literal>).
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        If the token is numeric only, then it is either a single field
        or an ISO 8601 concatenated date (e.g.,
        <literal>19990113</literal> for January 13, 1999) or time
        (e.g., <literal>141516</literal> for 14:15:16).
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        If the token starts with a plus (<literal>+</literal>) or minus
        (<literal>-</literal>), then it is either a numeric time zone or a special
        field.
       </para>
      </step>
     </substeps>
    </step>

    <step>
     <para>
      If the token is an alphabetic string, match up with possible strings:
     </para>

     <substeps>
      <step>
       <para>
        See if the token matches any known time zone abbreviation.
        These abbreviations are supplied by the configuration file
        described in <xref linkend="datetime-config-files"/>.
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        If not found, search an internal table to match
        the token as either a special string (e.g., <literal>today</literal>),
        day (e.g., <literal>Thursday</literal>),
        month (e.g., <literal>January</literal>),
        or noise word (e.g., <literal>at</literal>, <literal>on</literal>).
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        If still not found, throw an error.
       </para>
      </step>
     </substeps>
    </step>

    <step>
     <para>
      When the token is a number or number field:
     </para>

     <substeps>
      <step>
       <para>
        If there are eight or six digits,
        and if no other date fields have been previously read, then interpret
        as a <quote>concatenated date</quote> (e.g.,
        <literal>19990118</literal> or <literal>990118</literal>).
        The interpretation is <literal>YYYYMMDD</literal> or <literal>YYMMDD</literal>.
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        If the token is three digits
        and a year has already been read, then interpret as day of year.
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        If four or six digits and a year has already been read, then
        interpret as a time (<literal>HHMM</literal> or <literal>HHMMSS</literal>).
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        If three or more digits and no date fields have yet been found,
        interpret as a year (this forces yy-mm-dd ordering of the remaining
        date fields).
       </para>
      </step>

      <step>
       <para>
        Otherwise the date field ordering is assumed to follow the
        <varname>DateStyle</varname> setting: mm-dd-yy, dd-mm-yy, or yy-mm-dd.
        Throw an error if a month or day field is found to be out of range.
       </para>
      </step>
     </substeps>
    </step>

    <step>
     <para>
      If BC has been specified, negate the year and add one for
      internal storage.  (There is no year zero in the Gregorian
      calendar, so numerically 1 BC becomes year zero.)
     </para>
    </step>

    <step>
     <para>
      If BC was not specified, and if the year field was two digits in length,
      then adjust the year to four digits. If the field is less than 70, then
      add 2000, otherwise add 1900.

      <tip>
       <para>
        Gregorian years AD 1-99 can be entered by using 4 digits with leading
        zeros (e.g., <literal>0099</literal> is AD 99).
       </para>
      </tip>
     </para>
    </step>
   </procedure>
  </sect1>


  <sect1 id="datetime-invalid-input">
   <title>Handling of Invalid or Ambiguous Timestamps</title>

   <para>
    Ordinarily, if a date/time string is syntactically valid but contains
    out-of-range field values, an error will be thrown.  For example, input
    specifying the 31st of February will be rejected.
   </para>

   <para>
    During a daylight-savings-time transition, it is possible for a
    seemingly valid timestamp string to represent a nonexistent or ambiguous
    timestamp.  Such cases are not rejected; the ambiguity is resolved by
    determining which UTC offset to apply.  For example, supposing that the
    <xref linkend="guc-timezone"/> parameter is set
    to <literal>America/New_York</literal>, consider
<programlisting>
=&gt; SELECT '2018-03-11 02:30'::timestamptz;
      timestamptz
------------------------
 2018-03-11 03:30:00-04
(1 row)
</programlisting>
    Because that day was a spring-forward transition date in that time zone,
    there was no civil time instant 2:30AM; clocks jumped forward from 2AM
    EST to 3AM EDT.  <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> interprets the
    given time as if it were standard time (UTC-5), which then renders as
    3:30AM EDT (UTC-4).
   </para>

   <para>
    Conversely, consider the behavior during a fall-back transition:
<programlisting>
=&gt; SELECT '2018-11-04 01:30'::timestamptz;
      timestamptz
------------------------
 2018-11-04 01:30:00-05
(1 row)
</programlisting>
    On that date, there were two possible interpretations of 1:30AM; there
    was 1:30AM EDT, and then an hour later after clocks jumped back from
    2AM EDT to 1AM EST, there was 1:30AM EST.
    Again, <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> interprets the given time
    as if it were standard time (UTC-5).  We can force the other
    interpretation by specifying daylight-savings time:
<programlisting>
=&gt; SELECT '2018-11-04 01:30 EDT'::timestamptz;
      timestamptz
------------------------
 2018-11-04 01:30:00-04
(1 row)
</programlisting>
   </para>

   <para>
    The precise rule that is applied in such cases is that an invalid
    timestamp that appears to fall within a jump-forward daylight savings
    transition is assigned the UTC offset that prevailed in the time zone
    just before the transition, while an ambiguous timestamp that could fall
    on either side of a jump-back transition is assigned the UTC offset that
    prevailed just after the transition.  In most time zones this is
    equivalent to saying that <quote>the standard-time interpretation is
    preferred when in doubt</quote>.
   </para>

   <para>
    In all cases, the UTC offset associated with a timestamp can be
    specified explicitly, using either a numeric UTC offset or a time zone
    abbreviation that corresponds to a fixed UTC offset.  The rule just
    given applies only when it is necessary to infer a UTC offset for a time
    zone in which the offset varies.
   </para>
  </sect1>


  <sect1 id="datetime-keywords">
   <title>Date/Time Key Words</title>

   <para>
    <xref linkend="datetime-month-table"/> shows the tokens that are
    recognized as names of months.
   </para>

    <table id="datetime-month-table">
     <title>Month Names</title>
     <tgroup cols="2">
      <thead>
       <row>
        <entry>Month</entry>
        <entry>Abbreviations</entry>
       </row>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
       <row>
        <entry>January</entry>
        <entry>Jan</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>February</entry>
        <entry>Feb</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>March</entry>
        <entry>Mar</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>April</entry>
        <entry>Apr</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>May</entry>
        <entry></entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>June</entry>
        <entry>Jun</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>July</entry>
        <entry>Jul</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>August</entry>
        <entry>Aug</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>September</entry>
        <entry>Sep, Sept</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>October</entry>
        <entry>Oct</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>November</entry>
        <entry>Nov</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry>December</entry>
        <entry>Dec</entry>
       </row>
      </tbody>
     </tgroup>
    </table>

    <para>
     <xref linkend="datetime-dow-table"/> shows the tokens that are
     recognized as names of days of the week.
    </para>

     <table id="datetime-dow-table">
      <title>Day of the Week Names</title>
      <tgroup cols="2">
       <thead>
        <row>
         <entry>Day</entry>
         <entry>Abbreviations</entry>
        </row>
       </thead>
       <tbody>
        <row>
         <entry>Sunday</entry>
         <entry>Sun</entry>
        </row>
        <row>
         <entry>Monday</entry>
         <entry>Mon</entry>
        </row>
        <row>
         <entry>Tuesday</entry>
         <entry>Tue, Tues</entry>
        </row>
        <row>
         <entry>Wednesday</entry>
         <entry>Wed, Weds</entry>
        </row>
        <row>
         <entry>Thursday</entry>
         <entry>Thu, Thur, Thurs</entry>
        </row>
        <row>
         <entry>Friday</entry>
         <entry>Fri</entry>
        </row>
        <row>
         <entry>Saturday</entry>
         <entry>Sat</entry>
        </row>
       </tbody>
      </tgroup>
     </table>

   <para>
    <xref linkend="datetime-mod-table"/> shows the tokens that serve
    various modifier purposes.
   </para>

    <table id="datetime-mod-table">
     <title>Date/Time Field Modifiers</title>
     <tgroup cols="2">
      <thead>
       <row>
        <entry>Identifier</entry>
        <entry>Description</entry>
       </row>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
       <row>
        <entry><literal>AM</literal></entry>
        <entry>Time is before 12:00</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry><literal>AT</literal></entry>
        <entry>Ignored</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry><literal>JULIAN</literal>, <literal>JD</literal>, <literal>J</literal></entry>
        <entry>Next field is Julian Date</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry><literal>ON</literal></entry>
        <entry>Ignored</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry><literal>PM</literal></entry>
        <entry>Time is on or after 12:00</entry>
       </row>
       <row>
        <entry><literal>T</literal></entry>
        <entry>Next field is time</entry>
       </row>
      </tbody>
     </tgroup>
    </table>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="datetime-config-files">
  <title>Date/Time Configuration Files</title>

   <indexterm>
    <primary>time zone</primary>
    <secondary>input abbreviations</secondary>
   </indexterm>

   <para>
    Since timezone abbreviations are not well standardized,
    <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> provides a means to customize
    the set of abbreviations accepted by the server.  The
    <xref linkend="guc-timezone-abbreviations"/> run-time parameter
    determines the active set of abbreviations.  While this parameter
    can be altered by any database user, the possible values for it
    are under the control of the database administrator &mdash; they
    are in fact names of configuration files stored in
    <filename>.../share/timezonesets/</filename> of the installation directory.
    By adding or altering files in that directory, the administrator
    can set local policy for timezone abbreviations.
   </para>

   <para>
    <varname>timezone_abbreviations</varname> can be set to any file name
    found in <filename>.../share/timezonesets/</filename>, if the file's name
    is entirely alphabetic.  (The prohibition against non-alphabetic
    characters in <varname>timezone_abbreviations</varname> prevents reading
    files outside the intended directory, as well as reading editor
    backup files and other extraneous files.)
   </para>

   <para>
    A timezone abbreviation file can contain blank lines and comments
    beginning with <literal>#</literal>.  Non-comment lines must have one of
    these formats:

<synopsis>
<replaceable>zone_abbreviation</replaceable> <replaceable>offset</replaceable>
<replaceable>zone_abbreviation</replaceable> <replaceable>offset</replaceable> D
<replaceable>zone_abbreviation</replaceable> <replaceable>time_zone_name</replaceable>
@INCLUDE <replaceable>file_name</replaceable>
@OVERRIDE
</synopsis>
   </para>

   <para>
    A <replaceable>zone_abbreviation</replaceable> is just the abbreviation
    being defined.  An <replaceable>offset</replaceable> is an integer giving
    the equivalent offset in seconds from UTC, positive being east from
    Greenwich and negative being west.  For example, -18000 would be five
    hours west of Greenwich, or North American east coast standard time.
    <literal>D</literal> indicates that the zone name represents local
    daylight-savings time rather than standard time.
   </para>

   <para>
    Alternatively, a <replaceable>time_zone_name</replaceable> can be given, referencing
    a zone name defined in the IANA timezone database.  The zone's definition
    is consulted to see whether the abbreviation is or has been in use in
    that zone, and if so, the appropriate meaning is used &mdash; that is,
    the meaning that was currently in use at the timestamp whose value is
    being determined, or the meaning in use immediately before that if it
    wasn't current at that time, or the oldest meaning if it was used only
    after that time.  This behavior is essential for dealing with
    abbreviations whose meaning has historically varied.  It is also allowed
    to define an abbreviation in terms of a zone name in which that
    abbreviation does not appear; then using the abbreviation is just
    equivalent to writing out the zone name.
   </para>

   <tip>
    <para>
     Using a simple integer <replaceable>offset</replaceable> is preferred
     when defining an abbreviation whose offset from UTC has never changed,
     as such abbreviations are much cheaper to process than those that
     require consulting a time zone definition.
    </para>
   </tip>

   <para>
    The <literal>@INCLUDE</literal> syntax allows inclusion of another file in the
    <filename>.../share/timezonesets/</filename> directory.  Inclusion can be nested,
    to a limited depth.
   </para>

   <para>
    The <literal>@OVERRIDE</literal> syntax indicates that subsequent entries in the
    file can override previous entries (typically, entries obtained from
    included files).  Without this, conflicting definitions of the same
    timezone abbreviation are considered an error.
   </para>

   <para>
    In an unmodified installation, the file <filename>Default</filename> contains
    all the non-conflicting time zone abbreviations for most of the world.
    Additional files <filename>Australia</filename> and <filename>India</filename> are
    provided for those regions: these files first include the
    <literal>Default</literal> file and then add or modify abbreviations as needed.
   </para>

   <para>
    For reference purposes, a standard installation also contains files
    <filename>Africa.txt</filename>, <filename>America.txt</filename>, etc, containing
    information about every time zone abbreviation known to be in use
    according to the IANA timezone database.  The zone name
    definitions found in these files can be copied and pasted into a custom
    configuration file as needed.  Note that these files cannot be directly
    referenced as <varname>timezone_abbreviations</varname> settings, because of
    the dot embedded in their names.
   </para>

   <note>
    <para>
     If an error occurs while reading the time zone abbreviation set, no new
     value is applied and the old set is kept. If the error occurs while
     starting the database, startup fails.
    </para>
   </note>

   <caution>
    <para>
     Time zone abbreviations defined in the configuration file override
     non-timezone meanings built into <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
     For example, the <filename>Australia</filename> configuration file defines
     <literal>SAT</literal> (for South Australian Standard Time).  When this
     file is active, <literal>SAT</literal> will not be recognized as an abbreviation
     for Saturday.
    </para>
   </caution>

   <caution>
    <para>
     If you modify files in <filename>.../share/timezonesets/</filename>,
     it is up to you to make backups &mdash; a normal database dump
     will not include this directory.
    </para>
   </caution>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="datetime-posix-timezone-specs">
  <title><acronym>POSIX</acronym> Time Zone Specifications</title>

  <indexterm zone="datetime-posix-timezone-specs">
   <primary>time zone</primary>
   <secondary><acronym>POSIX</acronym>-style specification</secondary>
  </indexterm>

  <para>
   <acronym>PostgreSQL</acronym> can accept time zone specifications that
   are written according to the <acronym>POSIX</acronym> standard's rules
   for the <varname>TZ</varname> environment
   variable.  <acronym>POSIX</acronym> time zone specifications are
   inadequate to deal with the complexity of real-world time zone history,
   but there are sometimes reasons to use them.
  </para>

  <para>
   A POSIX time zone specification has the form
<synopsis>
<replaceable>STD</replaceable> <replaceable>offset</replaceable> <optional> <replaceable>DST</replaceable> <optional> <replaceable>dstoffset</replaceable> </optional> <optional> , <replaceable>rule</replaceable> </optional> </optional>
</synopsis>
   (For readability, we show spaces between the fields, but spaces should
   not be used in practice.)  The fields are:
   <itemizedlist>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      <replaceable>STD</replaceable> is the zone abbreviation to be used
      for standard time.
     </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      <replaceable>offset</replaceable> is the zone's standard-time offset
      from UTC.
     </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      <replaceable>DST</replaceable> is the zone abbreviation to be used
      for daylight-savings time.  If this field and the following ones are
      omitted, the zone uses a fixed UTC offset with no daylight-savings
      rule.
     </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      <replaceable>dstoffset</replaceable> is the daylight-savings offset
      from UTC.  This field is typically omitted, since it defaults to one
      hour less than the standard-time <replaceable>offset</replaceable>,
      which is usually the right thing.
     </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      <replaceable>rule</replaceable> defines the rule for when daylight
      savings is in effect, as described below.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </itemizedlist>
  </para>

  <para>
   In this syntax, a zone abbreviation can be a string of letters, such
   as <literal>EST</literal>, or an arbitrary string surrounded by angle
   brackets, such as <literal>&lt;UTC-05&gt;</literal>.
   Note that the zone abbreviations given here are only used for output,
   and even then only in some timestamp output formats.  The zone
   abbreviations recognized in timestamp input are determined as explained
   in <xref linkend="datetime-config-files"/>.
  </para>

  <para>
   The offset fields specify the hours, and optionally minutes and seconds,
   difference from UTC.  They have the format
   <replaceable>hh</replaceable><optional><literal>:</literal><replaceable>mm</replaceable><optional><literal>:</literal><replaceable>ss</replaceable></optional></optional>
   optionally with a leading sign (<literal>+</literal>
   or <literal>-</literal>).  The positive sign is used for
   zones <emphasis>west</emphasis> of Greenwich.  (Note that this is the
   opposite of the ISO-8601 sign convention used elsewhere in
   <acronym>PostgreSQL</acronym>.)  <replaceable>hh</replaceable> can have
   one or two digits; <replaceable>mm</replaceable>
   and <replaceable>ss</replaceable> (if used) must have two.
  </para>

  <para>
   The daylight-savings transition <replaceable>rule</replaceable> has the
   format
<synopsis>
<replaceable>dstdate</replaceable> <optional> <literal>/</literal> <replaceable>dsttime</replaceable> </optional> <literal>,</literal> <replaceable>stddate</replaceable> <optional> <literal>/</literal> <replaceable>stdtime</replaceable> </optional>
</synopsis>
   (As before, spaces should not be included in practice.)
   The <replaceable>dstdate</replaceable>
   and <replaceable>dsttime</replaceable> fields define when daylight-savings
   time starts, while <replaceable>stddate</replaceable>
   and <replaceable>stdtime</replaceable> define when standard time
   starts.  (In some cases, notably in zones south of the equator, the
   former might be later in the year than the latter.)  The date fields
   have one of these formats:
   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><replaceable>n</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       A plain integer denotes a day of the year, counting from zero to
       364, or to 365 in leap years.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><literal>J</literal><replaceable>n</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       In this form, <replaceable>n</replaceable> counts from 1 to 365,
       and February 29 is not counted even if it is present.  (Thus, a
       transition occurring on February 29 could not be specified this
       way.  However, days after February have the same numbers whether
       it's a leap year or not, so that this form is usually more useful
       than the plain-integer form for transitions on fixed dates.)
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><literal>M</literal><replaceable>m</replaceable><literal>.</literal><replaceable>n</replaceable><literal>.</literal><replaceable>d</replaceable></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       This form specifies a transition that always happens during the same
       month and on the same day of the week.  <replaceable>m</replaceable>
       identifies the month, from 1 to 12.  <replaceable>n</replaceable>
       specifies the <replaceable>n</replaceable>'th occurrence of the
       weekday identified by <replaceable>d</replaceable>.
       <replaceable>n</replaceable> is a number between 1 and 4, or 5
       meaning the last occurrence of that weekday in the month (which
       could be the fourth or the fifth).  <replaceable>d</replaceable> is
       a number between 0 and 6, with 0 indicating Sunday.
       For example, <literal>M3.2.0</literal> means <quote>the second
       Sunday in March</quote>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
  </para>

  <note>
   <para>
    The <literal>M</literal> format is sufficient to describe many common
    daylight-savings transition laws.  But note that none of these variants
    can deal with daylight-savings law changes, so in practice the
    historical data stored for named time zones (in the IANA time zone
    database) is necessary to interpret past time stamps correctly.
   </para>
  </note>

  <para>
   The time fields in a transition rule have the same format as the offset
   fields described previously, except that they cannot contain signs.
   They define the current local time at which the change to the other
   time occurs.  If omitted, they default to <literal>02:00:00</literal>.
  </para>

  <para>
   If a daylight-savings abbreviation is given but the
   transition <replaceable>rule</replaceable> field is omitted,
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> attempts to determine the
   transition times by consulting the <filename>posixrules</filename> file
   in the IANA time zone database.  This file has the same format as a
   full time zone entry, but only its transition timing rules are used,
   not its UTC offsets.  Typically, this file has the same contents as the
   <literal>US/Eastern</literal> file, so that POSIX-style time zone
   specifications follow USA daylight-savings rules.  If needed, you can
   adjust this behavior by replacing the <filename>posixrules</filename>
   file.
  </para>

  <note>
   <para>
    The facility to consult a <filename>posixrules</filename> file has
    been deprecated by IANA, and it is likely to go away in the future.
    One bug in this feature, which is unlikely to be fixed before it
    disappears, is that it fails to apply DST rules to dates after 2038.
   </para>
  </note>

  <para>
   If the <filename>posixrules</filename> file is not present,
   the fallback behavior is to use the
   rule <literal>M3.2.0,M11.1.0</literal>, which corresponds to USA
   practice as of 2020 (that is, spring forward on the second Sunday of
   March, fall back on the first Sunday of November, both transitions
   occurring at 2AM prevailing time).
  </para>

  <para>
   As an example, <literal>CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3</literal> describes
   current (as of 2020) timekeeping practice in Paris.  This specification
   says that standard time has the abbreviation <literal>CET</literal> and
   is one hour ahead (east) of UTC; daylight savings time has the
   abbreviation <literal>CEST</literal> and is implicitly two hours ahead
   of UTC; daylight savings time begins on the last Sunday in March at 2AM
   CET and ends on the last Sunday in October at 3AM CEST.
  </para>

  <para>
   The four timezone names <literal>EST5EDT</literal>,
   <literal>CST6CDT</literal>, <literal>MST7MDT</literal>,
   and <literal>PST8PDT</literal> look like they are POSIX zone
   specifications.  However, they actually are treated as named time zones
   because (for historical reasons) there are files by those names in the
   IANA time zone database.  The practical implication of this is that
   these zone names will produce valid historical USA daylight-savings
   transitions, even when a plain POSIX specification would not due to
   lack of a suitable <filename>posixrules</filename> file.
  </para>

  <para>
   One should be wary that it is easy to misspell a POSIX-style time zone
   specification, since there is no check on the reasonableness of the
   zone abbreviation(s).  For example, <literal>SET TIMEZONE TO
   FOOBAR0</literal> will work, leaving the system effectively using a
   rather peculiar abbreviation for UTC.
  </para>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="datetime-units-history">
  <title>History of Units</title>

  <indexterm zone="datetime-units-history">
   <primary>Gregorian calendar</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <para>
   The SQL standard states that <quote>Within the definition of a
   <quote>datetime literal</quote>, the <quote>datetime
   values</quote> are constrained by the natural rules for dates and
   times according to the Gregorian calendar</quote>.
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> follows the SQL
   standard's lead by counting dates exclusively in the Gregorian
   calendar, even for years before that calendar was in use.
   This rule is known as the <firstterm>proleptic Gregorian calendar</firstterm>.
  </para>

  <para>
   The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC.
   It was in common use in the Western world
   until the year 1582, when countries started changing to the Gregorian
   calendar.  In the Julian calendar, the tropical year is
   approximated as 365 1/4 days = 365.25 days. This gives an error of
   about 1 day in 128 years.
  </para>

  <para>
   The accumulating calendar error prompted
   Pope Gregory XIII to reform the calendar in accordance with
   instructions from the Council of Trent.
   In the Gregorian calendar, the tropical year is approximated as
   365 + 97 / 400 days = 365.2425 days. Thus it takes approximately 3300
   years for the tropical year to shift one day with respect to the
   Gregorian calendar.
  </para>

  <para>
   The approximation 365+97/400 is achieved by having 97 leap years
   every 400 years, using the following rules:

   <simplelist>
    <member>
     Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
    </member>
    <member>
     However, every year divisible by 100 is not a leap year.
    </member>
    <member>
     However, every year divisible by 400 is a leap year after all.
    </member>
   </simplelist>

   So, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, and 2200 are not leap years. But 1600,
   2000, and 2400 are leap years.

   By contrast, in the older Julian calendar all years divisible by 4 are leap
   years.
  </para>

  <para>
   The papal bull of February 1582 decreed that 10 days should be dropped
   from October 1582 so that 15 October should follow immediately after
   4 October.
   This was observed in Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. Other Catholic
   countries followed shortly after, but Protestant countries were
   reluctant to change, and the Greek Orthodox countries didn't change
   until the start of the 20th century.

   The reform was observed by Great Britain and its dominions (including what
   is now the USA) in 1752.
   Thus 2 September 1752 was followed by 14 September 1752.

   This is why Unix systems that have the <command>cal</command> program
   produce the following:

<screen>
$ <userinput>cal 9 1752</userinput>
   September 1752
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
       1  2 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
</screen>

   But, of course, this calendar is only valid for Great Britain and
   dominions, not other places.
   Since it would be difficult and confusing to try to track the actual
   calendars that were in use in various places at various times,
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> does not try, but rather follows the Gregorian
   calendar rules for all dates, even though this method is not historically
   accurate.
  </para>

  <para>
   Different calendars have been developed in various parts of the
   world, many predating the Gregorian system.

   For example,
   the beginnings of the Chinese calendar can be traced back to the 14th
   century BC. Legend has it that the Emperor Huangdi invented that
   calendar in 2637 BC.

   The People's Republic of China uses the Gregorian calendar
   for civil purposes. The Chinese calendar is used for determining
   festivals.
  </para>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="datetime-julian-dates">
  <title>Julian Dates</title>

  <indexterm zone="datetime-julian-dates">
   <primary>Julian date</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <para>
   The <firstterm>Julian Date</firstterm> system is a method for
   numbering days.  It is
   unrelated to the Julian calendar, though it is confusingly
   named similarly to that calendar.
   The Julian Date system was invented by the French scholar
   Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609)
   and probably takes its name from Scaliger's father,
   the Italian scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558).
  </para>

  <para>
   In the Julian Date system, each day has a sequential number, starting
   from JD 0 (which is sometimes called <emphasis>the</emphasis> Julian Date).
   JD 0 corresponds to 1 January 4713 BC in the Julian calendar, or
   24 November 4714 BC in the Gregorian calendar.  Julian Date counting
   is most often used by astronomers for labeling their nightly observations,
   and therefore a date runs from noon UTC to the next noon UTC, rather than
   from midnight to midnight: JD 0 designates the 24 hours from noon UTC on
   24 November 4714 BC to noon UTC on 25 November 4714 BC.
  </para>

  <para>
   Although <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> supports Julian Date notation for
   input and output of dates (and also uses Julian dates for some internal
   datetime calculations), it does not observe the nicety of having dates
   run from noon to noon.  <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> treats a Julian Date
   as running from local midnight to local midnight, the same as a normal
   date.
  </para>

  <para>
   This definition does, however, provide a way to obtain the astronomical
   definition when you need it: do the arithmetic in time
   zone <literal>UTC+12</literal>.  For example,
<programlisting>
=&gt; SELECT extract(julian from '2021-06-23 7:00:00-04'::timestamptz at time zone 'UTC+12');
     date_part
--------------------
 2459388.9583333335
(1 row)
=&gt; SELECT extract(julian from '2021-06-23 8:00:00-04'::timestamptz at time zone 'UTC+12');
 date_part
-----------
   2459389
(1 row)
=&gt; SELECT extract(julian from date '2021-06-23');
 date_part
-----------
   2459389
(1 row)
</programlisting>
  </para>

 </sect1>
</appendix>