1. SQL Language Reference
  2. Functions
  3. TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ

TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ

Syntax

Description of to_utc_timestamp_tz.eps follows
Description of the illustration to_utc_timestamp_tz.eps

Purpose

The SQL function TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ takes an ISO 8601 date format string as the varchar input and returns an instance of SQL data type TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE. It normalizes the input to UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time, formerly Greenwich Mean Time). Unlike SQL function TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ , the new function assumes that the input string uses the ISO 8601 date format, defaulting the time zone to UTC 0.

If the input varchar does not conform to the ISO 8601 format, you will see the ORA-40688 error.

A typical use of this function would be to provide its output to SQL function SYS_EXTRACT_UTC, obtaining a UTC time that is then passed as a SQL bind variable to SQL/JSON condition JSON_EXISTS, to perform a time-stamp range comparison.

This is the allowed syntax for dates and times:

  • Date (only): YYYY-MM-DD

  • Date with time: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss[.s[s[s[s[s[s]]]]][Z|(+|-)hh:mm]

where:

  • YYYY specifies the year, as four decimal digits.

  • MM specifies the month, as two decimal digits, 00 to 12.

  • DD specifies the day, as two decimal digits, 00 to 31.

  • hh specifies the hour, as two decimal digits, 00 to 23.

  • mm specifies the minutes, as two decimal digits, 00 to 59.

  • ss[.s[s[s[s[s]]]]] specifies the seconds, as two decimal digits, 00 to 59, optionally followed by a decimal point and 1 to 6 decimal digits (representing the fractional part of a second).

  • Z specifies UTC time (time zone 0). (It can also be specified by +00:00, but not by –00:00.)

  • (+|-)hh:mm specifies the time-zone as difference from UTC. (One of + or – is required.)

For a time value, the time-zone part is optional. If it is absent then UTC time is assumed.

No other ISO 8601 date-time syntax is supported. In particular:

  • Negative dates (dates prior to year 1 BCE), which begin with a hyphen (e.g. –2018–10–26T21:32:52), are not supported.

  • Hyphen and colon separators are required: so-called “basic” format, YYYYMMDDThhmmss, is not supported.

  • Ordinal dates (year plus day of year, calendar week plus day number) are not supported.

  • Using more than four digits for the year is not supported.

Supported dates and times include the following:

  • 2018–10–26T21:32:52

  • 2018-10-26T21:32:52+02:00

  • 2018-10-26T19:32:52Z

  • 2018-10-26T19:32:52+00:00

  • 2018-10-26T21:32:52.12679

Unsupported dates and times include the following:

  • 2018-10-26T21:32 (if a time is specified then all of its parts must be present)

  • 2018-10-26T25:32:52+02:00 (the hours part, 25, is out of range)

  • 18-10-26T21:32 (the year is not specified fully)

Examples

SELECT TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ('1998-01-01') FROM DUAL;

TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ('1998-01-01')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
01-JAN-98 12.00.00.000000000 AM +00:00
SELECT TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ('2000-01-02T12:34:56.789') FROM DUAL;

TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ('2000-01-02T12:34:56.789')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
02-JAN-00 12.34.56.789000000 PM +00:00
SELECT TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ('2016-05-05T00:00:00.000Z') FROM DUAL;

TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ('2016-05-05T00:00:00.000Z')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
05-MAY-16 12.00.00.000000000 AM +00:00
SELECT TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ('2016-05-05T02:04:35.4678Z') FROM DUAL;

TO_UTC_TIMESTAMP_TZ('2016-05-05T02:04:35.4678Z')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
05-MAY-16 02.04.35.467800000 AM +00:00

See Also: