PostgreSQL 7.4beta4 Documentation
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# A.2. Date/Time Key Words

Table A-1 shows the tokens that are permissible as abbreviations for the names of the month.

Table A-1. Month Abbreviations

Month | Abbreviations
--- | ---
April | Apr
August | Aug
December | Dec
February | Feb
January | Jan
July | Jul
June | Jun
March | Mar
November | Nov
October | Oct
September | Sep, Sept

> Note: The month May has no explicit abbreviation, for obvious reasons.

Table A-2 shows the tokens that are permissible as abbreviations for the names of the days of the week.

Table A-2. Day of the Week Abbreviations

Day | Abbreviation
--- | ---
Sunday | Sun
Monday | Mon
Tuesday | Tue, Tues
Wednesday | Wed, Weds
Thursday | Thu, Thur, Thurs
Friday | Fri
Saturday | Sat

Table A-3 shows the tokens that serve various modifier purposes.

Table A-3. Date/Time Field Modifiers

Identifier | Description
--- | ---
ABSTIME | Key word ignored
AM | Time is before 12:00
AT | Key word ignored
JULIAN, JD, J | Next field is Julian Day
ON | Key word ignored
PM | Time is on or after 12:00
T | Next field is time

The key word ABSTIME is ignored for historical reasons: In very old releases of PostgreSQL, invalid values of type `abstime` were emitted as Invalid Abstime. This is no longer the case however and this key word will likely be dropped in a future release.

Table A-4 shows the time zone abbreviations recognized by PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL contains internal tabular information for time zone decoding, since there is no standard operating system interface to provide access to general, cross-time zone information. The underlying operating system is used to provide time zone information for output, however.

The table is organized by time zone offset from UTC, rather than alphabetically. This is intended to facilitate matching local usage with recognized abbreviations for cases where these might differ.

Table A-4. Time Zone Abbreviations

Time Zone | Offset from UTC | Description
--- | --- | ---
NZDT | +13:00 | New Zealand Daylight-Saving Time
IDLE | +12:00 | International Date Line, East
NZST | +12:00 | New Zealand Standard Time
NZT | +12:00 | New Zealand Time
AESST | +11:00 | Australia Eastern Summer Standard Time
ACSST | +10:30 | Central Australia Summer Standard Time
CADT | +10:30 | Central Australia Daylight-Saving Time
SADT | +10:30 | South Australian Daylight-Saving Time
AEST | +10:00 | Australia Eastern Standard Time
EAST | +10:00 | East Australian Standard Time
GST | +10:00 | Guam Standard Time, Russia zone 9
LIGT | +10:00 | Melbourne, Australia
SAST | +09:30 | South Australia Standard Time
CAST | +09:30 | Central Australia Standard Time
AWSST | +09:00 | Australia Western Summer Standard Time
JST | +09:00 | Japan Standard Time, Russia zone 8
KST | +09:00 | Korea Standard Time
MHT | +09:00 | Kwajalein Time
WDT | +09:00 | West Australian Daylight-Saving Time
MT | +08:30 | Moluccas Time
AWST | +08:00 | Australia Western Standard Time
CCT | +08:00 | China Coastal Time
WADT | +08:00 | West Australian Daylight-Saving Time
WST | +08:00 | West Australian Standard Time
JT | +07:30 | Java Time
ALMST | +07:00 | Almaty Summer Time
WAST | +07:00 | West Australian Standard Time
CXT | +07:00 | Christmas (Island) Time
MMT | +06:30 | Myanmar Time
ALMT | +06:00 | Almaty Time
MAWT | +06:00 | Mawson (Antarctica) Time
IOT | +05:00 | Indian Chagos Time
MVT | +05:00 | Maldives Island Time
TFT | +05:00 | Kerguelen Time
AFT | +04:30 | Afghanistan Time
EAST | +04:00 | Antananarivo Summer Time
MUT | +04:00 | Mauritius Island Time
RET | +04:00 | Reunion Island Time
SCT | +04:00 | Mahe Island Time
IRT, IT | +03:30 | Iran Time
EAT | +03:00 | Antananarivo, Comoro Time
BT | +03:00 | Baghdad Time
EETDST | +03:00 | Eastern Europe Daylight-Saving Time
HMT | +03:00 | Hellas Mediterranean Time (?)
BDST | +02:00 | British Double Standard Time
CEST | +02:00 | Central European Summer Time
CETDST | +02:00 | Central European Daylight-Saving Time
EET | +02:00 | Eastern European Time, Russia zone 1
FWT | +02:00 | French Winter Time
IST | +02:00 | Israel Standard Time
MEST | +02:00 | Middle European Summer Time
METDST | +02:00 | Middle Europe Daylight-Saving Time
SST | +02:00 | Swedish Summer Time
BST | +01:00 | British Summer Time
CET | +01:00 | Central European Time
DNT | +01:00 | Dansk Normal Tid
FST | +01:00 | French Summer Time
MET | +01:00 | Middle European Time
MEWT | +01:00 | Middle European Winter Time
MEZ | +01:00 | Mitteleuropäische Zeit
NOR | +01:00 | Norway Standard Time
SET | +01:00 | Seychelles Time
SWT | +01:00 | Swedish Winter Time
WETDST | +01:00 | Western European Daylight-Saving Time
GMT | 00:00 | Greenwich Mean Time
UT | 00:00 | Universal Time
UTC | 00:00 | Universal Coordinated Time
Z | 00:00 | Same as UTC
ZULU | 00:00 | Same as UTC
WET | 00:00 | Western European Time
WAT | -01:00 | West Africa Time
FNST | -01:00 | Fernando de Noronha Summer Time
FNT | -02:00 | Fernando de Noronha Time
BRST | -02:00 | Brasilia Summer Time
NDT | -02:30 | Newfoundland Daylight-Saving Time
ADT | -03:00 | Atlantic Daylight-Saving Time
AWT | -03:00 | (unknown)
BRT | -03:00 | Brasilia Time
NFT | -03:30 | Newfoundland Standard Time
NST | -03:30 | Newfoundland Standard Time
AST | -04:00 | Atlantic Standard Time (Canada)
ACST | -04:00 | Atlantic/Porto Acre Summer Time
EDT | -04:00 | Eastern Daylight-Saving Time
ACT | -05:00 | Atlantic/Porto Acre Standard Time
CDT | -05:00 | Central Daylight-Saving Time
EST | -05:00 | Eastern Standard Time
CST | -06:00 | Central Standard Time
MDT | -06:00 | Mountain Daylight-Saving Time
MST | -07:00 | Mountain Standard Time
PDT | -07:00 | Pacific Daylight-Saving Time
AKDT | -08:00 | Alaska Daylight-Saving Time
PST | -08:00 | Pacific Standard Time
YDT | -08:00 | Yukon Daylight-Saving Time
AKST | -09:00 | Alaska Standard Time
HDT | -09:00 | Hawaii/Alaska Daylight-Saving Time
YST | -09:00 | Yukon Standard Time
MART | -09:30 | Marquesas Time
AHST | -10:00 | Alaska/Hawaii Standard Time
HST | -10:00 | Hawaii Standard Time
CAT | -10:00 | Central Alaska Time
NT | -11:00 | Nome Time
IDLW | -12:00 | International Date Line, West

Australian Time Zones. There are three naming conflicts between Australian time zone names and time zone names commonly used in North and South America: ACST, CST, and EST. If the run-time option australian_timezones is set to true then ACST, CST, EST, and SAT are interpreted as Australian time zone names, as shown in Table A-5. If it is false (which is the default), then ACST, CST, and EST are taken as American time zone names, and SAT is interpreted as a noise word indicating Saturday.

Table A-5. Australian Time Zone Abbreviations

Time Zone | Offset from UTC | Description
--- | --- | ---
ACST | +09:30 | Central Australia Standard Time
CST | +10:30 | Australian Central Standard Time
EST | +10:00 | Australian Eastern Standard Time
SAT | +09:30 | South Australian Standard Time

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