[FLINK-8169] Document timestamp and timezone behavior for Table API & SQL

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Component/s: Table SQL / API
• Labels: stale-major
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Timo Walther
• Created: 29/Nov/17 11:19
• Updated: 29/Apr/21 13:37
• Resolved: 29/Apr/21 13:37

Description

java.sql.Date, java.sql.Time, and java.sql.Timestamp are timezone dependent. However, in Flink's Table & SQL API we remove this dependency and work with UTC timestamps internally. It should be documented how windows use the timestamps in different timezones for event-time. The behavior for processing-time should be explained as well. What is the result if I cast both timestamps to Long, String, or output them to a DataSet/DataStream?