java.jdbc

Wrong timezone for java.sql.Date, java.sql.Time and java.sql.Timestamp objects returned by with-query-results

Details

  • Type: Defect Defect
  • Status: Resolved Resolved
  • Priority: Major Major
  • Resolution: Declined
  • Affects Version/s: None
  • Fix Version/s: None
  • Component/s: None
  • Labels:

Description

Our database stores date and time related information in UTC. But, the results from with-query-results creates objects in the local timezone. This is causing a lot of unexpected behavior when constructing Joda DateTime objects in clj-time. Currently, the with-query-results function is using the single argument getter functions in the ResultSet

getDate(int columnIndex)
getTime(int columnIndex)
getTimestamp(int columnIndex)

We can solve this problem if we can optionally pass the timezone information and call the two argument getter functions.

getDate(int columnIndex, Calendar cal)
getTime(int columnIndex, Calendar cal)
getTimestamp(int columnIndex, Calendar cal)

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Sean Corfield added a comment -

Can you provide a self-contained test case? Lots of people are using java.jdbc in production without running into this problem, and at World Singles we've had this in production for a long time in a high traffic environment without seeing any problems with timezones. Dates go in and out of the database unchanged, which is exactly as expected - and we have databases running in three different timezones.

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Sean Corfield added a comment - Can you provide a self-contained test case? Lots of people are using java.jdbc in production without running into this problem, and at World Singles we've had this in production for a long time in a high traffic environment without seeing any problems with timezones. Dates go in and out of the database unchanged, which is exactly as expected - and we have databases running in three different timezones.
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Jestine Paul added a comment -

I have added a new test and it is failing with my Postgresql.

https://github.com/jestinepaul/java.jdbc/commit/195397b1b2a0245d2439ab9963fe2138450a27f3

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Jestine Paul added a comment - I have added a new test and it is failing with my Postgresql. https://github.com/jestinepaul/java.jdbc/commit/195397b1b2a0245d2439ab9963fe2138450a27f3
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Sean Corfield added a comment -

Looking at recommended practices out there, such as listed here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2532729/daylight-saving-time-and-timezone-best-practices one important thing is: "On Servers, set hardware clocks and OS clocks to UTC. Use NTP services on all servers." The same advice is repeated here: http://www.dbspecialists.com/blog/database-theory/intelligent-date-handling/

Looking further into PostgreSQL (a database I generally don't use), I see this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6151084/which-timestamp-type-to-choose-in-a-postgresql-database which seems to contain a lot of PostgreSQL-specific stuff. However, that article makes it clear that you need to set the database timezone to UTC in order to SELECT timestamp columns correctly.

In my opinion, the behavior you're seeing is not a bug (in java.jdbc) but an artifact of your environment being set up incorrectly. I'll leave this ticket open for a little while for more discussion but without a concrete patch that is shown to not affect other use cases, I will close this ticket by the end of August.

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Sean Corfield added a comment - Looking at recommended practices out there, such as listed here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2532729/daylight-saving-time-and-timezone-best-practices one important thing is: "On Servers, set hardware clocks and OS clocks to UTC. Use NTP services on all servers." The same advice is repeated here: http://www.dbspecialists.com/blog/database-theory/intelligent-date-handling/ Looking further into PostgreSQL (a database I generally don't use), I see this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6151084/which-timestamp-type-to-choose-in-a-postgresql-database which seems to contain a lot of PostgreSQL-specific stuff. However, that article makes it clear that you need to set the database timezone to UTC in order to SELECT timestamp columns correctly. In my opinion, the behavior you're seeing is not a bug (in java.jdbc) but an artifact of your environment being set up incorrectly. I'll leave this ticket open for a little while for more discussion but without a concrete patch that is shown to not affect other use cases, I will close this ticket by the end of August.
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Jestine Paul added a comment -

As mentioned earlier, the database server timezone is in UTC and the JDBC library runs on a client machine set to local time. If the database has a date value of 2012-7-23, it changes to 2012-7-22 on the client side (if the client is running at timezone greater than UTC) when coerced using to-date-time in clj-time. This is extremely dangerous and is not specific to any database. I noticed it first on Sybase Enterprise Server and I have now also replicated it in the test case with Postgresql.

I have attached a patch which fixes this problem by passing in an optional parameter. The test case is also modified to use clj-time, as it expresses the problem more clearly. Please let me know if you need any more clarification.

p.s. I have already mailed the CA and should reach Durham in a few days.

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Jestine Paul added a comment - As mentioned earlier, the database server timezone is in UTC and the JDBC library runs on a client machine set to local time. If the database has a date value of 2012-7-23, it changes to 2012-7-22 on the client side (if the client is running at timezone greater than UTC) when coerced using to-date-time in clj-time. This is extremely dangerous and is not specific to any database. I noticed it first on Sybase Enterprise Server and I have now also replicated it in the test case with Postgresql. I have attached a patch which fixes this problem by passing in an optional parameter. The test case is also modified to use clj-time, as it expresses the problem more clearly. Please let me know if you need any more clarification. p.s. I have already mailed the CA and should reach Durham in a few days.
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Sean Corfield added a comment -

Since the proposed patch requires the user to pass in a list of columns to treat specially - and reorders columns in results and adds some performance overhead for all users, not just those wanting to adjust column values - I believe users who choose to run JDBC clients in timezones different to the database, against the widely-listed best practice recommendations, should bear the burden of adjusting the columns themselves in their own client code. Since they already know which columns to adjust and they know the difference between UTC and local time, they should be able to make the adjustments easily enough as part of post-processing the resultset-seq.

Show
Sean Corfield added a comment - Since the proposed patch requires the user to pass in a list of columns to treat specially - and reorders columns in results and adds some performance overhead for all users, not just those wanting to adjust column values - I believe users who choose to run JDBC clients in timezones different to the database, against the widely-listed best practice recommendations, should bear the burden of adjusting the columns themselves in their own client code. Since they already know which columns to adjust and they know the difference between UTC and local time, they should be able to make the adjustments easily enough as part of post-processing the resultset-seq.

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