Valid formats for times are listed in Table 2. Each format is identified by name and includes an associated
abbreviation (for use by the CHAR function) and an example of its use.
Table 2. Formats for Representations of Time Data Types
Format Name Abbreviation Time Format Example
International Standards Organization ISO hh.mm.ss 13.30.05
IBM USA Standard USA hh:mm am or pm 1:30 pm
IBM European Standard EUR hh.mm.ss 13.30.05
Japanese Industrial Standard
Christian era
JIS hh:mm:ss 13:30:05
OS/400 format - HMS 13:30:05
Note: Time separators can be either a period (.), slash (/), comma (,), dash (-), or a blank space. Use the
CHGJOB command to change the OS/400 date or time format separators.
In the USA time format, the hour must not be greater than 12 and cannot be 0 except for the special case
of 00:00 AM. Using the International Standards Organization (ISO) format of the 24-hour clock, the
correspondence between the USA format and the 24-hour clock is as follows:
USA Format
24 Hour-Clock
12:01 am through 12:59 am
00.01.00 through 00.59.00
01:00 am through 11:59 am
01.00.00 through 11.59.00
12:00 pm (noon) through 11:59 pm
12.00.00 through 23.59.00
12:00 am (midnight)
24.00.00
00:00 am (midnight)
00.00.00
The system always uses 00.00.00. Only the user can enter 24.00.00.
Query for iSeries timestamp
A timestamp expression is a seven-part value (year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and microsecond)
that designates a date and time as previously defined. The time part includes a fractional specification of
microseconds.
A timestamp data type starts with a digit and has a length of at least 16 characters. The complete
representation of a timestamp has the form yyyy-mm-dd-hh.mm.ss.nnnnnn. Trailing blanks can be
included. Leading zeros can be omitted from the month, day, and hour part of the timestamp. Trailing
zeros can be truncated or omitted entirely from microseconds. You do not need to specify microseconds. A
timestamp of yyy-mm-dd-hh.mm.ss is acceptable. If you choose to omit any digit of the microseconds
portion, an implicit specification of 0 is assumed. Thus, 1990-3-2-8.30.00.10 is equivalent to
1990-03-02-08.30.00.100000.
A timestamp expression with a time of 24.00.00.000000 can be accepted.
68 Query for iSeries Use V5R2