Part 3: Modeling, Storing, and Managing Date and Time

As the title of this part denotes, we will be discussing how to model, store, and generally manage date and time values. First, the available date- and time-oriented data types in Oracle are introduced. The Oracle RDBMS provides a honed-in solution because the DATE data type applies second granularity. Besides that, the TIMESTAMP data type is available to serve finer precision, optionally extended by the time zone perspective.

Once you are familiar with the available data types, it is possible to dig deeper into date and time value definitions by focusing on the constructor functions and conversion and element extraction functions, specifically looking at reliability and integrity issues. Moreover, in this part, National Language Support (NLS) parameters, making your systems adaptable to regions, are discussed. Namely, what is the first day of the week? Is it Sunday or Monday? You will get insights into server as well as client...