Hi there,

> I am confused &/or confounded by the replies to Goutam Patuchuri's

original

> post, answered below by Ann H where she states:
> "17 November 1858 as the base of FB's DATE"

This is right.

> Then Alexandre Benson Smith in his reply states:
> "12/30/1899 00:00:00 (IIRC) is the "zero" date/time"

This is wrong - this is Delphis "zero" date/time.

> & to quote from Helen Borrie's definitive (& very well written) The

Firebird

> Book, Chapter 10, Date & Time Types
> DATE (second paragraph, pp 143)
> "In dialect 3, DATE stores the date alone, with no time portion:
> "date-only." Storable dates range from January 1, 0001, to December 31,
> 9999."
>
> Now 01/01/0001 seems logical but hasn't Ann worked with FB/IB before the
> proverbial "Adam was a boy"?

Logical as what? As the zero date? Nope, it isn't :-)

Internally, dates before the zero-date are stored
as negative numbers.

> Can someone verify what the correct answer is so I can start recording my
> family tree (using FB) back to Roman times without getting errors (just
> joking but curious!)

You cannot with the Firebird date/time.

With regards,

Martijn Tonies
Database Workbench - developer tool for InterBase, Firebird, MySQL & MS SQL
Server.
Upscene Productions
http://www.upscene.com