Server Versus Client Date Interpretation

Generally, date values are resolved on the client. When a user selects date values, SAP ASE sends them to the client in an internal format.

The client uses the common.loc file and other localization files in the default language subdirectory of the locales directory on the client to convert the internal format to character data. For example, if the user’s default language is Spanish, SAP ASE looks for the common.loc file in $SYBASE/$SYBASE_ASE/locales/spanish/char_set. It uses the information in the file to display, for example, 12 febrero 2007.

Assume that the user’s default language is set to Italian, a language for which SAP ASE does not provide a language module, and that the date values in Italian have been added. When the client connects to the server and looks for the common.loc file for Italian, it does not find the file. The client prints an error message and connects to the server. If the user then selects date values, the dates are displayed in U.S. English format.To display the date values added with sp_addlanguage, use the convert function to force the dates to be converted to character data at the server.

The following query generates a result set with the dates in U.S. English format:
select pubdate from titles
The query below, however, returns the date with the month names in Italian:
select convert(char(19),pubdate) from titles