Firebird 2.1 Language Reference Update

Available in: DSQL, PSQL, ESQL
Changed in: 2.0
Context variables
'NOW'
Description: 'NOW' is not a variable but a string literal. It is, however, special in the sense that when you CAST()
it to a date/time type, you will get the current date and/or time. The fractional part of the time used to be always
“.0000”, giving an effective seconds precision. Since Firebird 2.0 the precision is 3 decimals, i.e. milliseconds.
'NOW' is case-insensitive, and the engine ignores leading or trailing spaces when casting.
Type: CHAR(3)
Examples:
Notes:
select 'Now' from rdb$database
-- returns 'Now'
select cast('Now' as date) from rdb$database
-- returns e.g. 2008-08-13
select cast('now' as time) from rdb$database
-- returns e.g. 14:20:19.6170
select cast('NOW' as timestamp) from rdb$database
-- returns e.g. 2008-08-13 14:20:19.6170
Shorthand syntax for the last three statements:
select date 'Now' from rdb$database
select time 'now' from rdb$database
select timestamp 'NOW' from rdb$database
• 'NOW' always returns the actual date/time, even in PSQL modules, where CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME
and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP return the same value throughout the duration of the outermost routine. This
makes 'NOW' useful for measuring time intervals in triggers, procedures and executable blocks.
• Except in the situation mentioned above, reading CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME and
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is generally preferable to casting 'NOW'. Be aware though that CURRENT_TIME defaults
to seconds precision; to get milliseconds precision, use CURRENT_TIME(3).
Available in: PSQL, triggers only
Changed in: 1.5, 2.0
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