Storing a zero-date in Oracle.

[Robert J.M. Edis]

G'day Rich

You didn't bother to specify what Oracle RDBMS you are using.  I assume from
the PowerHouse version it is either Oracle 7 or Oracle 8, running on UNIX.

I have seen it done by using a trigger to trap the NULL from PowerHouse and
force a zero into the date column.  While the SQL interface to Oracle 7
doesn't understand a 'zero' date, a zero can be stored in an Oracle date
column.  

When reading the column, PowerHouse is able to read a zero date from Oracle.

This solution requires a lot of work creating and maintaining triggers, but
it works.

Blue

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Rich `Lego-Man' Jesse - 7633 [SMTP:RJESSE@QTIWORLD.COM]
> Sent:	Monday, May 17, 1999 11:50 AM
> To:	oracle@telelists.com; powerh-l@lists.swau.edu
> Subject:	Storing a zero-date in Oracle.
> 
> (this message is being cross-posted to oracle-l and powerh-l)
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to determine how to store a zero date in Oracle.  I'm not
> looking
> for 01/01/4712 BC, but 00/00/0000.
> 
> Why?  Because our software vendor does not support nulls in date fields,
> and
> the 4GL software that our app was written in, PowerHouse 733D3
> (specifically
> QTP), stores blank dates as "00/00/0000 00:00:00.000".  I can retreive the
> dates using any number of tools, but I can't for the life of me figure out
> how
> to duplicate the population of the date fields in SQL without getting
> conversion errors.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> TIA,
> Rich Jesse                              Programmer/Analyst
> (/DBA/SysAdmin/etc.)
> rjesse@qtiworld.com                     Quad/Tech International, Sussex,
> WI USA
> = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
> =
> Subscribe: "subscribe powerh-l" in message body to
> majordomo@lists.swau.edu
> Unsubscribe: "unsubscribe powerh-l" in message to majordomo@lists.swau.edu
> powerh-l@lists.swau.edu is gatewayed one-way to bit.listserv.powerh-l
> This list is closed, thus to post to the list, you must be a subscriber.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Subscribe: "subscribe powerh-l" in message body to majordomo@lists.swau.edu
Unsubscribe: "unsubscribe powerh-l" in message to majordomo@lists.swau.edu
powerh-l@lists.swau.edu is gatewayed one-way to bit.listserv.powerh-l
This list is closed, thus to post to the list, you must be a subscriber.