Datetime values

Datetime values are neither strings nor numbers. Nevertheless, datetime values can be used in certain arithmetic and string operations and are compatible with certain strings.

Moreover, strings can represent datetime values, as discussed in String representations of datetime values.

Date
A date is a three-part value (year, month, and day) designating a point in time using the Gregorian calendar, which is assumed to have been in effect from the year 1 A.D.
Time
A time is a three-part value (hour, minute, and second) designating a time of day using a 24-hour clock. The range of the hour part is 0 to 24. The range of the minute and second parts is 0 to 59. If the hour is 24, the minute and second parts are both zero.
Timestamp
A timestamp is a six-part or seven-part value (year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and optional fractional second) with an optional time zone specification, that represents a date and time.
Datetime host variables
Character-string host variables are normally used to contain date, time, and timestamp values. However, date, time, and timestamp host variables can also be specified in Java as java.sql.Date, java.sql.Time, and java.sql.Timestamp, respectively.
String representations of datetime values
Dates, times, and timestamp values can be represented by strings. For many host languages, there are no special SQL constants for datetime values and, except for Java, no host variables with a data type of date, time, or timestamp. Thus, to be retrieved, a datetime value must be assigned to a string variable.
Determination of the implicit time zone
DB2 uses the IMPLICIT_TIMEZONE parameter of DSNHDECP to implicitly determines the time zone to associate with a value that does not have a time zone on assignment to a TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE column or variable.
Restrictions on the use of local datetime formats
Certain restrictions apply on the use of date and time values as input, as output, and for use in binding a package.

Parent topic: Data types