TIME Data Type | Data Types and Literals | Teradata Vantage - TIME Data Type - Advanced SQL Engine - Teradata Database

SQL Data Types and Literals

Product
Advanced SQL Engine
Teradata Database
Release Number
17.05
17.00
Published
June 2020
Language
English (United States)
Last Update
2021-01-22
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B035-1143
lifecycle
previous
Product Category
Teradata Vantage™

Identifies a field as a TIME value.

This is not the value returned by the TIME function, which is formatted as a REAL number.

Syntax

TIME [ ( fractional_seconds_precision ) ] [ attributes [...] ]
fractional_seconds_precision
A single digit representing the number of significant digits in the fractional portion of the SECOND field.
Values for fractional_seconds_precision range from 0 to 6 inclusive.
The default precision is 6.
attributes
Appropriate data type, column storage, or column constraint attributes.
See Core Data Type Attributes and Storage and Constraint Attributes for specific information.

ANSI Compliance

TIME is non-ANSI standard. The Teradata Database stores a TIME value in UTC.

Internal Representation of TIME

Conceptually, TIME is treated as a record composed of three fields.

Field name Range of Values Storage Format
Minimum Maximum
HOUR 00 23 BYTEINT
MINUTE 00 59 BYTEINT
SECOND 00.000000   61.999999

This value accounts for leap seconds that can be added to the clock.

DECIMAL(8,6)

Although the record is composed of numeric fields, it is not treated as a numeric value.

The length of the internal stored form is six bytes.

External Representation of TIME

TIME types are imported and exported in record and indicator modes as CHARACTER data using the ANSI format string and the site-defined client character set.

WHEN fractional_seconds_precision is … THEN the type is … AND the format is …
0 CHAR(8) 'hh:mi:ss'
n

where n is 1 - 6

CHAR(9+n) 'hh:mi:ss.ss...'

The following table shows examples of how TIME types are exported in record and indicator modes.

WHEN fractional_seconds_precision is … THEN the length is … FOR example …
6 15 '11:37:58.123456'
0 8 '11:37:58'

TIME Formats

For information about the TIME formats and how to change them, see TIME and TIMESTAMP Formats.

Implicit and Explicit TIME Conversion

Teradata Database performs implicit conversion from CHARACTER to TIME types during assignment and comparison. This conversion is supported for CHAR and VARCHAR types only. You cannot convert a character data type of CLOB or CHAR/VARCHAR CHARACTER SET GRAPHIC to TIME.

Teradata Database also performs implicit conversion from TIME to TIMESTAMP types in some cases. However, implicit TIME to TIMESTAMP conversion is not supported for comparisons.

You can use CAST to explicitly convert CHARACTER to TIME types or from TIME to TIMESTAMP types.

For more information, see “Data Type Conversions” in Teradata Vantage™ - SQL Functions, Expressions, and Predicates, B035-1145.