OpenEdge Data Management: DataServer for Microsoft SQL Server

Default and Special Datetime Default Values
Data types
When a DATETIME or a DATETIME-TZ value is defined to a table in the DataServer schema
without a default value, its initial value is automatically set to “?” (the Unknown value). An
option for setting the initial value is to use the ABL NOW function. It initializes both date and
time parts of the current date and time and the time zone portion for DATETIME-TZ columns.
Using NOW for initialization sets the date, time, and time zone based on
SESSION:TIME-SOURCE.
Using Datetime Data Types with Stored Procedures
Beginning in OpenEdge Release 10.2B, DATETIME-TZ is included as a parameter type that can
be passed to and received from stored procedures.
The DATETIME-TZ data types are definable in both static and dynamic temp tables. Therefore,
along with parameterization, SENDSQL and stored procedure result sets can convert DATETIME-TZ
data types when using LOAD-RESULT-INTO.
If query results derived from a stored procedure are defined by foreign data types that require
special mapping in order to retain their value or a portion of their value, they should be CAST to
a type that can handle them. For instance, a TIME data type in a stored procedure result set
should be CAST to a datetime data type that can receive the time component since OpenEdge
does not support a TIME data type directly. The CAST should be done as part of the result set
before it is received into a SQL View or LOAD-RESULT-INTO temp tables. Similarly, an MS SQL
Server datetime data type with time precision greater than OpenEdge should be CAST to a native
datetime data type with the same or less precision than OpenEdge before it is returned in the
result set so it can be properly received. Or, you could CAST a more precise value to a VARCHAR
column in advance and preserve the precision in the alphanumeric form of an OpenEdge
CHARACTER field.
Datetime index components
Indexing of DATETIME and DATETIME-TZ columns is supported in schema holders. Using
DATETIME-TZ fields in an index is particularly useful since the date and time value is stored in
UTC and therefore will display results in absolute time.
Using datetime data types in a WHERE clause
Mixing DATE, DATETIME, DATETIME-TZ in a WHERE clause or in other comparisons will cause
compile time errors and are not valid comparisons.
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