The format of the date datatype is byte 1 - century (excess 100) 120 - 100 = 20 byte 2 - year (excess 100) 104 - 100 = 04 byte 3 - month = 2 byte 4 - day = 20 byte 5 - hour (excess 1) 1 - 1 = 0 byte 6 - minute (excess 1) 1 - 1 = 0 byte 7 - seconds (excess 1) 1 - 1 = 0 So the YYYY/MM/DD:hh24:mi:ss format would be 2004/02/20:00:00:00 The reason for the excess is that the value cannot be stored as a 0, even though 0 is allowable in some fields. Obviously we don't have a month 0 nor day 0. Daniel "Jesse, Rich" wrote: > Hey all, > > I'm trying to see if I can determine the actual date of a DATE column in > 8.1.7.4.0 on HP/UX given a DUMP of the column. When I: > > SELECT DUMP(mydatecol) > FROM mytab; > > I get this from the single row in the table: > > Typ=12 Len=7: 120,104,2,20,1,1,1 > > From a translated value of "02/20/2004" in that column, I can make some > assumptions as to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fields, but the rest baffles me. I > checked the App Dev manuals on tahiti.oracle.com, but nothing popped out at > me. > > The reason I'm checking on this is because of a known bug in OCI that allows > putting values of "0" for every byte in the date field. This is invalid, of > course, but OCI doesn't check that validity before setting the value of a > date field. It really causes havoc in other tools, however. Some display a > date in the 1800s, others blow up. > > TIA, > Rich > > Rich Jesse System/Database Administrator > rich.jesse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx QuadTech, Sussex, WI USA > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. > -- > Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ > FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html > ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------