Date and Time in Previous Versions

Up until version 3.0, Valuemation used to maintain two independent attributes to store date and time information.

These two attributes were:

• Date attribute stored in the date format which the used DBMS offers
• Time field stored as char(8) within the DB (hh:mm:ss)

Compared with previous versions, introduction of the new Timestamp format in version 3.1 has the following consequences:

• Possibility to apply Time Zone Offset
• Simplified sorting on date and time fields
• Need for fewer controls in editors and columns in catalogs

In a most likely scenario, the shift towards using Timestamp will be motivated by the need to use time zones, with the other consequences seen as an added benefit.