Controls how a date, time, or timestamp value is passed to the client application when queried.

Allowed values

On, Off

Default

Off

Scope

Can be set as a temporary option only, for the duration of the current connection.

Remarks

This option indicates whether date, time, and timestamp values are returned to applications as a date or time data type or as a string.

When this option is set to On, the database server converts the date, time, or timestamp value to a string before it is sent to the client to preserve the timestamp_format, date_format, or time_format option setting.

Sybase Central and Interactive SQL automatically turn the return_date_time_as_string option On.

See also

• date_format option [database]
• time_format option [compatibility]
• timestamp_format option [compatibility]