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Time conversion in Oracle PL/SQL

I am writing a package to process data into a schema and a requirement to store a timestamp as "no of seconds since 01/01/1970 UCT time" has surfaced.
I am not aware of any packaged procedure etc in Oracle which does this conversion. Will I have to do this calc manually or is there a nicer way???

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

catchmeifuwant

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axl747

ASKER

So there is no other way but to do it manually then? Also, as I indicated, I also need to convert the date to UCT time (thats GMT without daylight savings I believe), and I still haven't found a way to do this in SQL.

SOLUTION

bmoshier

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Helena Marková

No comment has been added lately, so it's time to clean up this TA.
I will leave a recommendation in the Cleanup topic area that this question is:

Split between catchmeifuwant and bmoshier.

Please leave any comments here within the next seven days.

PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT THIS COMMENT AS AN ANSWER!

Henka
EE Cleanup Volunteer

axl747

ASKER

Thanks for the suggestions - I guess the answer to my initial question is 'no nicer way' at least not in 8i!!

We already had a solution using unix scripts so we have left it at that.

smoon63

Actually the assisted answer should replace the accepted answer as it comes closer to solving the original problem. The accepted answer does nothing to account for the UTC offset problem. The assisted answer doesn't actually solve it, but at least it offers several avenues of exploration on the issue.