What exactly IS Time Stamping?

Question

Hi,
I'm building a web application in an effort to create
something not only practical to use, but to also improve my
programming abilities.
At the moment, I store records in a database with separate
columns for Time and Date.
What I want to know is, is this a good way about doing
things? I have tried to research the best way to store dates and
times but can't find much on the subject for a beginner like me.
I have often seen the format:
{ts '2008-04-10 20:13:00'}
...floating around on the web - is this the proper way to
maintain a time stamp?
I simply want to do things properly from the ground up so
would appreciate your advice and guidence on how to handle the
storage of dates and times. If you could spare a minute to explain
the best practice and pitfalls of this it would be much
appreciated.
Apologies if I sound really stupid!
Thanks,
Mikey.

Answer 1

Kapitaine wrote:
> Hi, thanks for the reply.
>
> So would it actually sit in my DB column as:
>
> {ts '2008-04-10 20:13:00'}
>
> Then do CF functions like this? e.g:
>
> <cfset variables.test = "{ts '2008-04-10 20:13:00'}"
/>
> <h2>#dateFormat(variables.test,
"dd/mm/yyyy")#</h2>
> <h2>#timeFormat(variables.test, "hh:mm:ss
tt")#</h2>
>
> Seems to work, but is this correct? Should the date and
time be stored toether
> like that? Why does it need curly braces and a "t". Is
this some kind of
> convention?
>
> Thanks,
> Mikey.
>
Well, no, that is a string that ColdFusion typeless automatic
conversion
is allowing to work for you. You exact example would probably
be better
down as:
<cfset variables.test =
createDateTime(2008,4,10,20,13,00)>
Now you have an actual date-time object variable that is
easily
accessible for all date-time functions, calculations and
formating.