Outputting UTC offset with to_char()

On Sun, Oct 21, 2012 at 05:40:40PM -0400, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>
> I'm not sure if this has come up before.
>
> A client was just finding difficulties because to_char() doesn't
> support formatting the timezone part of a timestamptz numerically
> (i.e. as +-hhmm) instead of using a timezone name. Is there any
> reason for that? Would it be something worth having?

Great idea! I have developed the attached patch to do this:

test=> SELECT to_char(current_timestamp, 'OF');
to_char
---------
-04
(1 row)

test=> SELECT to_char(current_timestamp, 'TMOF');
to_char
---------
-04
(1 row)

test=> SET timezone = 'Asia/Calcutta';
SET
test=> SELECT to_char(current_timestamp, 'OF');
to_char
---------
+05:30
(1 row)

test=> SELECT to_char(current_timestamp, 'FMOF');
to_char
---------
+5:30
(1 row)

I went with the optional colon and minutes because this is how we output
it:

test=> SELECT current_timestamp;
now
-------------------------------
2013-06-28 22:02:24.773587-04
---
(1 row)

test=> set timezone = 'Asia/Calcutta';
SET
test=> SELECT current_timestamp;
now
----------------------------------
2013-06-29 07:32:29.157565+05:30
------
(1 row)

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ It's impossible for everything to be true. +