11.19. 'TODAY'
Available inDSQL, PSQL, ESQL
TypeCHAR(5)
'TODAY' is not a variable, but a string literal.
It is, however, special in the sense that when you CAST() it to a date/time type, you will get the current date.
'TODAY' is case-insensitive, and the engine ignores leading or trailing spaces when casting.
'TODAY'always returns the actual date, even in PSQL modules, where Section 11.2, “CURRENT_DATE”, Section 11.4, “CURRENT_TIME” and Section 11.5, “CURRENT_TIMESTAMP” return the same value throughout the duration of the outermost routine. This makes'TODAY'useful for measuring time intervals in triggers, procedures and executable blocks (at least if your procedures are running for days).Except in the situation mentioned above, reading
CURRENT_DATE, is generally preferable to casting'NOW'.
Examples
select 'Today' from rdb$database
-- returns 'Today'
select cast('Today' as date) from rdb$database
-- returns e.g. 2011-10-03
select cast('TODAY' as timestamp) from rdb$database
-- returns e.g. 2011-10-03 00:00:00.0000
Shorthand syntax for the last two statements:
select date 'Today' from rdb$database;select timestamp 'TODAY' from rdb$database;