in reply to Re: Re: MySQL Timestamp comparison
in thread MySQL Timestamp comparison

The point in creating a subroutine to take in a date/time and return an "seconds since the epoch", is not so much for MySQL specifically, but more for portability - other databases don't have a UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function, and therefore can't give back a date/time column in "seconds since the epoch". So your subroutine can function in a date/time portability role - to convert a date/time, say coming in in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format, into a number that is "seconds since the epoch".

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Re: Re: Re: Re: MySQL Timestamp comparison
by erasei (Pilgrim) on Oct 30, 2003 at 16:46 UTC
    Very true, but in you have already included a MySQL specific function (UNIX_TIMESTAMP) in your above example thus excluding you from any platform independence. Having one function in your script that requires MySQL forces all the rest of your script to require it as well by default (unless you do some sort of modularized set up, but a simple script won't cope.) Therefore your argument of having the subroutine to do the conversion to be cross platform is moot because you are already requiring MySQL.
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      How would you make it cross platform. Would it be better to take the time stamping function away from the database and have the scripts create and store the time stamp in an Integer on the database. That way there would be no need for conversion no matter what the database. So what is the benefit of the timestamp function beside having the database handle the function????

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        It's kind of a tough call. What I've tried to do in my experience is to stay away from functions specific to one particular database - like UNIX_TIMESTAMP in MySQL. But many people would argue that point, especially if you want to fully take advantage of all that a particular database has to offer. My preference is to stay database independent as much as possible - this makes migration to a different database, at some point in the future, less painful :-)
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