TIMESTAMP

Timestamp data type and usages

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Description

A timestamp value represents an absolute point in time, independent of any time zone or convention such as daylight saving time (DST), with microsecond precision. For more information please refer to BigQuery Timestamp data type.

Grammar syntax

Name	Range
TIMESTAMP	0001-01-01 00:00:00 to 9999-12-31 23:59:59.999999 UTC

TIMESTAMP data type currently transformed to TIMESTAMP_TZ.

It is important to remark that BigQuery stores TIMESTAMP data in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Sample Source Patterns

TIMESTAMP without time

Input Code:

BigQuery

IN -> BigQuery_01.sql

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE timestampTable
(
  COL1 TIMESTAMP
);

INSERT INTO timestampTable VALUES ('2008-12-26 15:30:00');
INSERT INTO timestampTable VALUES (TIMESTAMP'2008-12-27 18:30:00');
SELECT * FROM timestampTable;

Result

Output Code:

Snowflake

OUT -> BigQuery_01.sql

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE timestampTable
(
  COL1 TIMESTAMP_TZ
);

INSERT INTO timestampTable VALUES ('2008-12-26 15:30:00');
INSERT INTO timestampTable VALUES (TIMESTAMP'2008-12-27 18:30:00');
SELECT * FROM timestampTable;

Result

TIMESTAMP with time zone

When the time zone is defined you need to use the CONVERT_TIMEZONE function to store the data in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Also the timezone name inside the timestamp literal is not supported by Snowflake, in that case it is necessary to use this function as well.

Input Code:

BigQuery

IN -> BigQuery_01.sql

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE test.timestampType
(
  COL1 TIMESTAMP
);

INSERT INTO test.timestampType VALUES ('2008-12-25 15:30:00 America/Chicago');
INSERT INTO test.timestampType VALUES ('2018-04-05 12:00:00+02:00');
INSERT INTO test.timestampType VALUES ('2008-12-26 15:30:00-08:00');
INSERT INTO test.timestampType VALUES (TIMESTAMP'2022-12-25 15:30:00 America/North_Dakota/New_Salem');
INSERT INTO test.timestampType VALUES (TIMESTAMP'2022-04-05 12:00:00+02:00');
INSERT INTO test.timestampType VALUES (TIMESTAMP'2022-12-26 15:30:00-08:00');
SELECT * FROM test.timestampType ORDER BY COL1;

Result

Output Code:

Snowflake

OUT -> BigQuery_01.sql

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE test.timestampType
(
  COL1 TIMESTAMP_TZ
);

INSERT INTO test.timestampType
VALUES (CONVERT_TIMEZONE('America/Chicago', 'UTC', '2008-12-25 15:30:00'));
INSERT INTO test.timestampType
VALUES (CONVERT_TIMEZONE('UTC','2018-04-05 12:00:00+02:00'));
INSERT INTO test.timestampType
VALUES (CONVERT_TIMEZONE('UTC','2008-12-26 15:30:00-08:00'));

INSERT INTO test.timestampType
VALUES (CONVERT_TIMEZONE('America/North_Dakota/New_Salem', 'UTC', '2022-12-25 15:30:00'));
INSERT INTO test.timestampType
VALUES (CONVERT_TIMEZONE('UTC', '2022-04-05 12:00:00+02:00'));
INSERT INTO test.timestampType
VALUES (CONVERT_TIMEZONE('UTC', '2022-12-26 15:30:00-08:00'));
SELECT * FROM test.timestampType ORDER BY COL1;

Result