[DB-SIG] informixdb module problem

[John Mitchell]

On Fri, 2 Oct 1998, Anthony M. Ingraldi wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am having some difficulty with DATE data and the informixdb module.  The
> following example illustrates the problem
> 
> >>> cursor.execute("insert into table_name (a_date) values ('10/2/98')")
> 1
> >>> cursor.execute("select a_date from table_name where a_date='10/2/98'")
> >>> res = cursor.fetchall()
> >>> res
> [(<DbiDate object at eeb68>,)]
> >>> str(res[0][0])
> 'Wed Dec 31 18:59:59 1969'


I've seen the exact same symptoms: selects returning a DbiDate get the
equivalent of "-1"...  Workaround: 1) swear till you're blue, and then 2)
if you dont need the date *value*, just the *string* (ie: for reports),
then change your select to return a string:

	select a_date||'' from table_name

The "||" is Informix's string-concatanate.

(I'm using Python 1.5, SGI Irix 6.2, informixdb 1.01 1997-03-11.)

Oh yeah: dont try to do load/unload via cursor.execute().  It doesnt work:
'unload' isnt SQL!  Check:
http://outside.organic.com/mail-archives/dbi-users/Jun1997/0170.html

I've only got to step #1 above, because #2 is "add code to the C
library"... 


- j