Important: The end-user formats of the numeric and monetary data do not affect the internal format of the numeric or MONEY data types in the database. They affect only how the client application views the data.When an Informix product reads a string that contains numeric or monetary data, it uses the end-user format to determine how to convert this string to the internal value for the database column. When an Informix product prints a string that contains numeric or monetary data, it uses the end-user format to determine how to format the internal value for the database column as a string.
Important: The end-user formats of the numeric and monetary data do not affect the internal format of the numeric or MONEY data types in the database. They affect only how the client application views the data.
The end-user formats for numeric and monetary data specify the following characters and symbols:
In addition to this numeric notation, monetary data also uses a currency symbol to identify the currency unit. A locale can define this symbol to appear at the front ($100) or back (100FF) of the monetary value. In this manual, the combination of currency symbol, decimal separator, and thousands separator is called currency notation.
When an Informix product reads a string that contains time data, it uses the time end-user format to determine how to convert this string to the internal integer value for a DATETIME column. When an Informix product prints a string that contains time data, it uses the time end-user format to determine how to format the internal integer value for a DATETIME column as a string. In the same way, Informix products use the date end-user format to read and print strings for the internal values of the date data types.
Important: The end-user formats of the date and time data do not affect the internal format of the DATE or DATETIME data types in the database. They affect only how the client application views the data.
The end-user formats for date and time involve characters and symbols that format date and time values. This information includes the names and abbreviations for days of the week and months of the year. It also includes the commonly used representations for dates, time (12-hour and 24-hour), and DATETIME values.
The end-user formats can include the names of eras (as in the Japanese Imperial date system) and non-Gregorian calendars (such as the Arabic lunar calendar). For example, the Taiwan culture uses the Ming Guo year format in addition to the Gregorian calendar year. For dates before 1912, Ming Guo years are negative. The Ming Guo year 0000 is undefined; any attempt to use it generates an error.
The following table shows some era-based dates.
| Gregorian Year | Ming Guo Year | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 82 | 1993 - 1911 = 82 |
| 1912 | 01 | 1912 - 1911 = 01 |
| 1911 | -01 | 1911 - 1912 = -01 |
| 1910 | -02 | 1910 - 1912 = -02 |
| 1900 | -12 | 1900 - 1912 = -12 |
Japanese Imperial-era dates are tied to the reign of the Japanese emperors. The following table shows Julian and Japanese era dates. It shows the Japanese era format in full, with abstract multibyte characters for the Japanese characters, and in an abbreviated form that uses romanized characters (gengo). The abbreviated form of the era uses the first letter of the English name for the Japanese era. For example, H represents the Heisei era.
In the preceding table, A1A2 and B1B2 represent multibyte Japanese characters.
For more information, see Customizing Date and Time End-User Formats.