Re: TIME vs. TIMESTAMP data type

On 6/2/03 11:04, "Ludwig Lim" <lud_nowhere_man(at)yahoo(dot)com> wrote:

> Are there cases when a TIME data type is a better
> choice over the TIMESTAMP data type?

Surely this depends on the nature of the data that you want to represent?

If you're researching into sleep patterns and want to represent the times
each day that subjects say they tend to wake and/or fall asleep, you may
want the TIME type, as the important aspect is the time, not the date. The
inclusion of a date would be nonsensical.

If you want to record *when* an event occurred, you usually want date and
time, so TIMESTAMP is more appropriate.

Since event timing is a much more frequent requirement than a time-of-day,
it's not surprising that the facilities may be better developed for dealing
with that type.

Julian Scarfe