Sqlite: CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is in GMT, not the timezone of the machine

Question

I have a sqlite (v3) table with this column definition:

\"timestamp\" DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

The server that this database live

Answer 1

In the (admitted rare) case that a local datatime is wanted (I, for example, store local time in one of my database since all I care is what time in the day is was and I don't keep track of where I was in term of time zones...), you can define the column as

"timestamp" TEXT DEFAULT (strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M','now', 'localtime'))

The %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M part is of course optional; it is just how I like my time to be stored. [Also, if my impression is correct, there is no "DATETIME" datatype in sqlite, so it does not really matter whether TEXT or DATETIME is used as data type in column declaration.]

Answer 2

When having a column defined with "NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP," inserted records will always get set with UTC/GMT time.

Here's what I did to avoid having to include the time in my INSERT/UPDATE statements:

--Create a table having a CURRENT_TIMESTAMP:
CREATE TABLE FOOBAR (
    RECORD_NO INTEGER NOT NULL,
    TO_STORE INTEGER,
    UPC CHAR(30),
    QTY DECIMAL(15,4),
    EID CHAR(16),
    RECORD_TIME NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)

--Create before update and after insert triggers:
CREATE TRIGGER UPDATE_FOOBAR BEFORE UPDATE ON FOOBAR
    BEGIN
       UPDATE FOOBAR SET record_time = datetime('now', 'localtime')
       WHERE rowid = new.rowid;
    END

CREATE TRIGGER INSERT_FOOBAR AFTER INSERT ON FOOBAR
    BEGIN
       UPDATE FOOBAR SET record_time = datetime('now', 'localtime')
       WHERE rowid = new.rowid;
    END

Test to see if it works...

--INSERT a couple records into the table:
INSERT INTO foobar (RECORD_NO, TO_STORE, UPC, PRICE, EID)
    VALUES (0, 1, 'xyz1', 31, '777')

INSERT INTO foobar (RECORD_NO, TO_STORE, UPC, PRICE, EID)
    VALUES (1, 1, 'xyz2', 32, '777')

--UPDATE one of the records:
UPDATE foobar SET price = 29 WHERE upc = 'xyz2'

--Check the results:
SELECT * FROM foobar

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Time ( 'now', 'localtime' ) and Date ( 'now', 'localtime' ) works.

Answer 4

SELECT datetime(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, 'localtime')

Answer 5

You can also just convert the time column to a timestamp by using strftime():

SELECT strftime('%s', timestamp) as timestamp FROM ... ;

Gives you:

1454521888

'timestamp' table column can be a text field even, using the current_timestamp as DEFAULT.

Without strftime:

SELECT timestamp FROM ... ;

Gives you:

2016-02-03 17:51:28

Answer 6

The current time, in your machine's timezone:

select time(time(), 'localtime');

As per http://www.sqlite.org/lang_datefunc.html