Capturing EDT/EST timezone with TIMESTAMP datatype

Question

Hi guys,
In 9i DB, I need to capture date and timestamp with EDT or EST time zone specifiers. For testing pursposes, I wrote the following code and the result is as:
SET SERVEROUT ON
DECLARE
v_date TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE;
BEGIN
v_date := TIMESTAMP '2003-06-15 12:16:30 US/Eastern EDT';
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v_date);
END;
I get the following result:
15-JUN-03 12.16.30.000000 PM
Actually I need 15-JUN-03 12.16.30.000000 PM EDT or EST depending on the daylight times in the Eastern coast. Also, I did change my SESSION with ALTER SESSION SET TIME_ZONE='US/Eastern' but still I do not get the promising output. I just put it to the forum in the hope if someone could help me out with the new timestamp datatype in this case please.
Any help will highly be appreciated.
Thanks
Zahir

Answer 1

WE need to set the NLS_TIMESTAMP_TZ_FORMAT and give apropriate format when printing timestamp:
SQL> alter session set nls_timestamp_tz_format = 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS TZD' ;
Session altered.
SQL> DECLARE
  2     v_date TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE;
  3  BEGIN
  4     v_date := TIMESTAMP '2003-&1-15 12:16:30 US/Eastern';
  5     DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TO_CHAR(v_date, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH:MI:SS TZD'));
  6  END;
  7  /
Enter value for 1: 01
old   4:        v_date := TIMESTAMP '2003-&1-15 12:16:30 US/Eastern';
new   4:        v_date := TIMESTAMP '2003-01-15 12:16:30 US/Eastern';
15-JAN-2003 01:16:30
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> /
Enter value for 1: 06
old   4:        v_date := TIMESTAMP '2003-&1-15 12:16:30 US/Eastern';
new   4:        v_date := TIMESTAMP '2003-06-15 12:16:30 US/Eastern';
15-JUN-2003 12:16:30
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>When I enter a date in January, it prints the time as 01:16:30 (even though the time specified in the value was 12:16:30).
And, next when I enter a date in June, it prints the time as 12:16:30 (this is what we entered).