Leslie,

c> I still think that set DateFormat = DD/MM/YYYY is a good idea.

at the connection level, yes. Since the engine accepts string literals
as dates, if sounds fair for it to hand the client a chance to specify
the format.

An alternative way is a function like Oracle's TO_DATE,
which is both nonstandard and ugly, but lets you specify the format at
the statement level (this could be achieved in Firebird right now by
means of a UDF).

Nonetheless I think the source of your troubles is the lack of
flexibility in your persistence layer, and you will
benefit for sure if you make your applications data-type aware.

Ciao
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