Best way to store Timestamps in files/databases?

Question

Hi,
I also need Timezone information for the timestamps - im sending the info in an xml-file between two servers, and finally insert information in a postgresql database. Best format for this? Maybe use long-values?
Any help much appreciated!

Answer 1

So, I can use a timestamp in the xml-files I don't know what this means. If you mean you take a Timestamp's long millis value and shove it in the XML, without regard to TZ, and then extract it in the same way, yes, you can do that.
and also
use timestamp in dbLike I said: Create a Timestamp, use PreparedStatement.setTimestamp to push it into a DATETIME column of the DB, and you're golden. You're just marking an instant in time. Like an announcer on global TV is going, "NOW".
- and when displaying the
timestamps, I can use a SimpleDateFormat to format
the timestamp with any TimeZone I wish?Yup.
Also (thanx again for your patience!), I have the
log-file dates. Here I parse out a String like
'2007-12-10 22:10:00 0200' for each file.Okay, so you probably want a SimpleDateFormat that knows how to parse the "0200" on the end into appropriate TZ information to give you a TZ-agnostic date.
That is, that's +2 hrs from GMT, right? So when you parse that, you get a java.sql.Date that represents "that instant." It's 10:10 p.m. there, 5:10 p.m. somewhere else, 3:10 a.m. somewhere else, etc., but that doesn't matter. 10:10 p.m. here is exactly the same as 11:10 p.m. in the next TZ. Once I specify 10:10 p.m. here, I've also implicitly stated 00:10 CDT tomorrow in Chicago, etc.
Remember, "now" == X:00 PDT == X+2:00 CDT == X+3:00 EDT == X+ 11:30 or something India TZ, etc.