Why is the DATE data type 8 bytes?

[JeffSatler]

Hi,

Why are dates in Vertica 8 bytes?

Code: Select all

dbadmin=> create table mydate (d date);
CREATE TABLE
dbadmin=> select table_name, column_name, data_type, data_type_length from columns where table_name = 'mydate';
 table_name | column_name | data_type | data_type_length
------------+-------------+-----------+------------------
 mydate     | d           | date      |                8
(1 row)

In Oracle dates are only seven bytes - corresponding to century, year, month, day, hour, minute, and second.