CREATE TABLE events ( id SERIAL, local_start TIMESTAMPTZ, -- absolute moment in UTC user_time_zone TEXT -- 'America/Los_Angeles' ); | Feature | TIMESTAMP | TIMESTAMPTZ | |---------|-------------|----------------| | Time zone awareness | ❌ No | ✅ Yes (UTC internally) | | Changes with client time zone | ❌ No | ✅ Yes (on output) | | Safe for global apps | ❌ Risky | ✅ Safe | | Storage size | 8 bytes | 8 bytes (same!) |
If you care when something happened, use TIMESTAMPTZ . Your future self (and your global users) will thank you. Have a horror story about timestamps gone wrong? Share it in the comments below! postgres timestamp vs timestamptz
-- Assume my session time zone is 'America/New_York' SET TIME ZONE 'America/New_York'; -- Create a test table CREATE TABLE time_test ( ts_native TIMESTAMP, -- without tz ts_tz TIMESTAMPTZ -- with tz ); CREATE TABLE events ( id SERIAL, local_start TIMESTAMPTZ,
Chances are, you chose the wrong PostgreSQL temporal data type. Share it in the comments below
To preserve the user's original time zone (e.g., for compliance or display), you need a :