Oracle Forms Developer – Form Builder Reference, Volume 1

$$DBDATETIME$$ system variable
Syntax
$$DBDATETIME$$
Description
$$DBDATETIME$$ retrieves the current date and time from the local database. Use
$$DBDATETIME$$ to designate a default value or range for a text item using the Initial Value or
Lowest/Highest Allowed Value properties. The text item must be of the CHAR or DATETIME data
type.
Usage Notes
Use $$DBDATETIME$$ to default a DATE item to the current date on the server machine, for example,
when connecting to a remote database that may be in a different time zone from the client’s time zone.
The display of system variables is governed by the format mask, either a default data type format mask or
one you specify. For example, if you want a DD-MON-YY HH:MM:SS format, you must specify a
DATETIME or CHAR data type. (Note that the default format mask depends on the value of
NLS_LANG.)
If you are building a client/server application, using $$DBDATETIME$$ could have performance
implications, depending on the complexity of your network configuration.
Note: Do not use $$DBDATETIME$$ instead of $$DBDATE$$ unless you plan to specify the time
component. If, for example, you use $$DBDATETIME$$ with the default DATE format mask of DD-
MON-YY, you would be committing values to the database that the user would not see, because the
format mask does not include a time component. Then, because you had committed specific time
information, when you later queried on date, the values would not match and you would not return any
rows.
$$DBDATETIME$$ restrictions
If you are accessing a non-ORACLE datasource, avoid using $$DBDATETIME$$. Instead, use a
When-Create-Record trigger to select the current date and time in a datasource-specific manner.
$$DBDATETIME$$ examples
Assume that you want the value of a DATETIME text item, called ORDERDATE, to default to the
current database date and time. When you define the ORDERDATE text item, specify
$$DBDATETIME$$ in the Lowest/Highest Allowed Value properties.
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