Re: [Gnumed-devel] Handling of time hh:mm:ss in dob (date of birth)

[Karsten Hilbert]

> In the table dem.identity, dob is defined as
> 
>       timestamp with time zone
> 
> 1. In such a field, is hh:mm:ss as well as the time zone optional,
no

> or   will postgres not tolerate missing values?
yes

> 2. If a dob cannot be entered purely as
> 
>       yyyy mm dd
> 
> does GNUMed visibly
> or invisibly supply a default for both hh:mm:ss  
In a timestamp phrasewheel: visibly

> as well as time zone?
Yes, the timezone the client told the server it is operating in.

> 3. Might the value 00:00:01 (in place of something like 07:00:00) be  
> more unusual and therefore hinting that the time of birth is not an  
> actual time?
Yes, but, if we somewhere have an error in observing DST vs not observing DST 
we may inadvertantly
display the wrong *date* if the default time is within 1 hour of midnight 
either way.

> 4. Since the visual presentation of hh:mm:ss within the "create  
> patient" widget will be a distraction for a majority of the users in  
> a majority of patient creations, would the needs of the few who must  
> capture and input a real time be met by allowing them to type in the  
> time in the form of additional characters but without a visual prompt  
> to do so?
There will be a not all too distant time when we'll improve the new-patient 
widget. At that point in time
I plan on improving this timestamp situation, probably changing dem.identity to

.dob         timestamp with time zone
.dob_time time

where the time part in .dob is always ignored and the dob_time can be NULL and 
if NOT NULL
the time zone of .dob applies to it.

> 5. When importing patients with an sql script, are there likewise any  
> constraints or requirements or expectations of time within the sql  
> scripted dates of birth?
They must be valid timestamps and should include the time zone.

Karsten
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