TIMESTAMP vs TIMESTAMPTZ §

TIMESTAMP §

TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE stores local date-time (aka. wall calendar date and wall clock time). Its time zone is unspecified as far as PostgreSQL can tell (though your application may knows what it is). Hence, PostgreSQL does no time zone related conversion on input or output.

If the value was entered into the database as '2011-07-01 06:30:30', then no mater in what time zone you display it later, it will still say year 2011, month 07, day 01, 06 hours, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds (in some format).

Also, any offset or time zone you specify in the input is ignored by PostgreSQL, so '2011-07-01 06:30:30+00' and '2011-07-01 06:30:30+05' are the same as just '2011-07-01 06:30:30'.

TIMESTAMPTZ §

TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE stores a point on the UTC time line. How it looks (how many hours, minutes, etc.) depends on your time zone, but it always refers to the same “physical” instant (like the moment of an actual physical event). The input is internally converted to UTC, and that’s how it’s stored.

For that, the offset of the input must be known, so when the input contains no explicit offset or time zone (like '2011-07-01 06:30:30') it’s assumed to be in the current time zone of the PostgreSQL session, otherwise the explicitly specified offset or time zone is used (as in '2011-07-01 06:30:30+05').

The output is displayed converted to the current time zone of the PostgreSQL session.

Example §

The difference arises from what the system can reasonably know about the value:

• With a time zone as part of the value, the value can be rendered as a local time in the client.
• Without a time zone as part of the value, the obvious default time zone is UTC, so it is rendered for that time zone.

The behaviour differs depending on at least three factors:

• The timezone setting in the client.
• The data type (i.e. WITH TIME ZONE or WITHOUT TIME ZONE) of the value.
• Whether the value is specified with a particular time zone.

Here are examples covering the combinations of those factors:

foo=> SET TIMEZONE TO 'Japan';
SET
foo=> SELECT '2011-01-01 00:00:00'::TIMESTAMP;
      timestamp      
---------------------
 2011-01-01 00:00:00
(1 row)
 
foo=> SELECT '2011-01-01 00:00:00'::TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE;
      timestamptz       
------------------------
 2011-01-01 00:00:00+09
(1 row)
 
foo=> SELECT '2011-01-01 00:00:00+03'::TIMESTAMP;
      timestamp      
---------------------
 2011-01-01 00:00:00
(1 row)
 
foo=> SELECT '2011-01-01 00:00:00+03'::TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE;
      timestamptz       
------------------------
 2011-01-01 06:00:00+09
(1 row)
 
foo=> SET TIMEZONE TO 'Australia/Melbourne';
SET
foo=> SELECT '2011-01-01 00:00:00'::TIMESTAMP;
      timestamp      
---------------------
 2011-01-01 00:00:00
(1 row)
 
foo=> SELECT '2011-01-01 00:00:00'::TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE;
      timestamptz       
------------------------
 2011-01-01 00:00:00+11
(1 row)
 
foo=> SELECT '2011-01-01 00:00:00+03'::TIMESTAMP;
      timestamp      
---------------------
 2011-01-01 00:00:00
(1 row)
 
foo=> SELECT '2011-01-01 00:00:00+03'::TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE;
      timestamptz       
------------------------
 2011-01-01 08:00:00+11
(1 row)

Reference §

types - Difference between timestamps with/without time zone in PostgreSQL - Stack Overflow Read this first

PostgreSQL: Documentation: 9.1: Date/Time Types Always Use TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE jpa - PostgreSQL/JDBC and TIMESTAMP vs. TIMESTAMPTZ - Stack Overflow