Temporal Data Types

Table 1: examples of the temporal data types instant, period and span. Dates are specified here in day, month, year format, but input and output using the ISO year, month, day order is also supported.
External representation Granularity Meaning
10/4/1996 Day Instant located within the single day 10th April 1996
4/1996 Month Instant located in April 1996
19xx Century Instant located within the twentieth century
4/1996 (2) Month Indeterminate instant located in April or May 1996
10/4/1996 ~ 12/4/1996 Day Period encompassing the three days 10th, 11th and 12th April 1996
1/1/1996 (9) ~ 10/4/1996 Day Period beginning during a day between the 1st and 9th of January 1996 and ending during the day of the 10th April 1996
10 days Day Span of length ten days
5 (3) years Year Span of indeterminate length between five and seven years

Last updated: 4th September 1996