Specifying Era-Based Dates

These SQL statements might specify DATE and DATETIME column values:

• The WHERE clause of the DELETE statement
• The VALUES clause of the INSERT statement
• The SET clause of the UPDATE statement

When you specify a DATE column value in one of the preceding SQL statements, the database server uses the GL_DATE (or DBDATE) environment variable to interpret the date expression, as follows:

• If you have set GL_DATE (or DBDATE) to an era-based (Asian) date format, you can use era-based date formats for date expressions.
• If you have not set the GL_DATE (or DBDATE) environment variable to an era-based date format, you can use era-based date formats for date expressions only if the server-processing locale supports era-based dates. For more information on the server-processing locale, see Determining the Server-Processing Locale.
• If your locale does not support era-based dates, you cannot use era-based date formats for date expressions. If you attempt to specify an era-based date format in this case, the SQL statement fails.

When you specify a DATETIME column value, the database server uses the GL_DATETIME (or DBTIME) environment variable instead of the GL_DATE (or DBDATE) environment variable to interpret the expression.

For more information, see Era-Based Date and Time Formats.