The DATE data type stores a year, month, and day.
Syntax
You can express a constant value of type DATE using an interpreted literal, or a string literal annotated with type DATE or coerced to type DATE.
CockroachDB also supports using uninterpreted string literals in contexts where a DATE value is otherwise expected. By default, CockroachDB parses the following string formats for dates:
YYYY-MM-DDMM-DD-YYYYMM-DD-YY(default)/YY-MM-DD/DD-MM-YY
To change the input format of truncated dates (e.g., 12-16-06) from MM-DD-YY to YY-MM-DD or DD-MM-YY, set the datestyle session variable or the sql.defaults.datestyle cluster setting.
PostgreSQL compatibility
DATE values in CockroachDB are fully PostgreSQL-compatible, including support for special values (e.g., +/- infinity). Existing dates outside of the PostgreSQL date range (4714-11-24 BC to 5874897-12-31) are converted to +/- infinity dates.
Size
A DATE column supports values up to 16 bytes in width, but the total storage size is likely to be larger due to CockroachDB metadata.
Examples
> CREATE TABLE dates (a DATE PRIMARY KEY, b INT);
> SHOW COLUMNS FROM dates;
column_name | data_type | is_nullable | column_default | generation_expression | indices | is_hidden
--------------+-----------+-------------+----------------+-----------------------+-----------+------------
a | DATE | false | NULL | | {primary} | false
b | INT8 | true | NULL | | {primary} | false
(2 rows)
Explicitly typed DATE literal:
> INSERT INTO dates VALUES (DATE '2016-03-26', 12345);
String literal implicitly typed as DATE:
> INSERT INTO dates VALUES ('03-27-16', 12345);
> SELECT * FROM dates;
a | b
-------------+--------
2016-03-26 | 12345
2016-03-27 | 12345
(2 rows)
Supported casting and conversion
DATE values can be cast to any of the following data types:
| Type | Details |
|---|---|
DECIMAL |
Converts to number of days since the Unix epoch (Jan. 1, 1970). |
FLOAT |
Converts to number of days since the Unix epoch (Jan. 1, 1970). |
TIMESTAMP |
Sets the time to 00:00 (midnight) in the resulting timestamp. |
INT |
Converts to number of days since the Unix epoch (Jan. 1, 1970). |
STRING |
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