PostgreSQL

DateTime, DateTimeTz and Time Types

Postgres has a variable return format for the datatype TIMESTAMP(n) and TIME(n) if microseconds are allowed (n > 0). Whenever you save a value with microseconds = 0, PostgreSQL will return this value in the format:

$ 2010-10-10 10:10:10 (Y-m-d H:i:s)

However if you save a value with microseconds it will return the full representation:

$ 2010-10-10 10:10:10.123456 (Y-m-d H:i:s.u)

Using the DateTime, DateTimeTz or Time type (and immutable variants) with microseconds enabled columns can lead to errors because internally types expect the exact format 'Y-m-d H:i:s' in combination with DateTime::createFromFormat(). This method is twice as fast as passing the date to the constructor of DateTime.

This is why Doctrine always wants to create the time related types without microseconds:

DateTime to TIMESTAMP(0) WITHOUT TIME ZONE
DateTimeTz to TIMESTAMP(0) WITH TIME ZONE
Time to TIME(0) WITHOUT TIME ZONE

If you do not let Doctrine create the date column types and rather use types with microseconds you have replace the "DateTime", "DateTimeTz" and "Time" types (and immutable variants) with a more liberal DateTime parser that detects the format automatically:

use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type;

Type::overrideType('datetime', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeType');
Type::overrideType('datetimetz', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeType');
Type::overrideType('time', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeType');

Type::overrideType('datetime_immutable', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeImmutableType');
Type::overrideType('datetimetz_immutable', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeImmutableType');
Type::overrideType('time_immutable', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeImmutableType');

Timezones and DateTimeTz

Postgres does not save the actual Timezone Name but UTC-Offsets. The difference is subtle but can be potentially very nasty. Derick Rethans explains it very well in a blog post of his.

MySQL

DateTimeTz

MySQL does not support saving timezones or offsets. The DateTimeTz type therefore behaves like the DateTime type.

Sqlite

Buffered Queries and Isolation

Be careful if you execute a SELECT query and do not iterate over the statements results immediately. UPDATE statements executed before iteration affect only the rows that have not been buffered into PHP memory yet. This breaks the SERIALIZABLE transaction isolation property that SQLite supposedly has.

DateTime

Unlike most database management systems, Sqlite does not convert supplied datetime strings to an internal storage format before storage. Instead, Sqlite stores them as verbatim strings (i.e. as they are entered) and expects the user to use the DATETIME() function when reading data which then converts the stored values to datetime strings. Because Doctrine is not using the DATETIME() function, you may end up with "Could not convert database value ... to Doctrine Type datetime." exceptions when trying to convert database values to \DateTime objects using

1 \Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type::getType('datetime')->convertToPhpValue(...)

DateTimeTz

Sqlite does not support saving timezones or offsets. The DateTimeTz type therefore behaves like the DateTime type.

Reverse engineering primary key order

SQLite versions < 3.7.16 only return that a column is part of the primary key, but not the order. This is only a problem with tables where the order of the columns in the table is not the same as the order in the primary key. Tables created with Doctrine use the order of the columns as defined in the primary key.

IBM DB2

DateTimeTz

DB2 does not save the actual Timezone Name but UTC-Offsets. The difference is subtle but can be potentially very nasty. Derick Rethans explains it very well in a blog post of his.

Oracle

DateTimeTz

Oracle does not save the actual Timezone Name but UTC-Offsets. The difference is subtle but can be potentially very nasty. Derick Rethans explains it very well in a blog post of his.

OCI-LOB instances

Doctrine DBAL always requests CLOB columns as strings, so that you as a developer never get access to the OCI-LOB instance. Since we are using prepared statements for all write operations inside the ORM, using strings instead of the OCI-LOB does not cause any problems.

Microsoft SQL Server

Unique and NULL

Microsoft SQL Server takes Unique very seriously. There is only ever one NULL allowed contrary to the standard where you can have multiple NULLs in a unique column.

DateTime, DateTimeTz and Time Types

SQL Server has a variable return format for the datatype DATETIME(n) if microseconds are allowed (n > 0). Whenever you save a value with microseconds = 0.

If you do not let Doctrine create the date column types and rather use types with microseconds you have replace the "DateTime", "DateTimeTz" and "Time" types (and immutable variants) with a more liberal DateTime parser that detects the format automatically:

use Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type;

Type::overrideType('datetime', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTime');
Type::overrideType('datetimetz', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTime');
Type::overrideType('time', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTime');

Type::overrideType('datetime_immutable', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeImmutableType');
Type::overrideType('datetimetz_immutable', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeImmutableType');
Type::overrideType('time_immutable', 'Doctrine\DBAL\Types\VarDateTimeImmutableType');

Maintained

Unmaintained