CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

`CURRENT_TIMESTAMP`

Current server date and time in the session time zone, with time zone information

Type

TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE

Caution

Data type changed in Firebird 4.0 from TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE to TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE.Use [fblangref50-contextvars-localtimestamp] to obtain TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE.

Syntax

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP [ (<precision>) ]

<precision> ::= 0 | 1 | 2 | 3

The optional precision argument is not supported in ESQL.

Table 1. `CURRENT_TIMESTAMP` Parameter
Parameter	Description
precision	Precision.The default value is 3.Not supported in ESQL

The default is 3 decimals, i.e. milliseconds precision.

Note

The default precision of CURRENT_TIME is 0 decimals, so CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is not the exact sum of CURRENT_DATE and CURRENT_TIME, unless you explicitly specify a precision (i.e. CURRENT_TIME(3) or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(0)).
Within a PSQL module (procedure, trigger or executable block), the value of CURRENT_TIMESTAMP will remain constant every time it is read.If multiple modules call or trigger each other, the value will remain constant throughout the duration of the outermost module.If you need a progressing value in PSQL (e.g. to measure time intervals), use [fblangref50-contextvars-now].

Warning

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP and Firebird Time Zone Support

Firebird 4.0 added support for time zones.As part of this support, an incompatibility with the CURRENT_TIMESTAMP expression was introduced compared to previous versions.

Since Firebird 4.0, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP returns the TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE type.In order for your queries to be compatible with database code of Firebird 4.0 and higher, Firebird 3.0.4 and Firebird 2.5.9 introduced the [fblangref50-contextvars-localtimestamp] expression.In Firebird 3.0.4 and Firebird 2.5.9, LOCALTIMESTAMP is a synonym for CURRENT_TIMESTAMP.

In Firebird 5.0, LOCALTIMESTAMP returns TIMESTAMP [WITHOUT TIME ZONE], while CURRENT_TIMESTAMP returns TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE.

Examples

select current_timestamp from rdb$database
-- returns e.g. 2008-08-13 14:20:19.6170

select current_timestamp(2) from rdb$database
-- returns e.g. 2008-08-13 14:20:23.1200

`CURRENT_TRANSACTION`

Unique identifier of the current transaction

Type

BIGINT

Syntax

CURRENT_TRANSACTION

The transaction identifier is derived from a counter on the database header page, which is incremented for each new transaction.When a database is restored, this counter is reset to zero.

Examples

select current_transaction from rdb$database

New.Txn_ID = current_transaction;