Date columns in SQL-Server (MSSQL-JDBC 3.0) running under Java 1.7.0 retrieved as 2 days in the past

Question

I have strange effects when retrieving columns of type DATE from SQLServer2008 using the Microsoft JDBC-Driver version 3.0 when running under the official Oracle JDK 1.7.0. Host OS is Windows Server 2003.

All Date columns are retrieved as two days in the past with respect to the value actually stored in the column.

I cooked up a minimal code example the test this out (Test table and data):

CREATE TABLE Java7DateTest (
  dateColumn DATE
);
INSERT INTO Java7DateTest VALUES('2011-10-10');

Code:

public class Java7SQLDateTest {

    public static void main(final String[] argv) {
        try {
            Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");
            Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(
                    "jdbc:sqlserver://192.168.0.1:1433;databaseName=dbNameHere",
                    "user", "password");
            PreparedStatement statement = connection.prepareStatement("SELECT * FROM Java7DateTest");
            ResultSet resultSet = statement.executeQuery();
            while (resultSet.next()) {
                final java.sql.Date date = resultSet.getDate("dateColumn");
                final String str = resultSet.getString("dateColumn");
                System.out.println(date + " (raw: " + str + ")");
            }
            resultSet.close();
            statement.close();
            connection.close();
        } catch (final Throwable t) {
            throw new RuntimeException(t.getMessage(), t);
        }
    }

}

Running this code on above configuration prints: "2011-10-08 (raw: 2011-10-08)". Under JRE 1.6.0_27 it prints: "2011-10-10 (raw: 2011-10-10)"

I could not find anything that seems to relate to my problem with google, so I'm assuming that its either something stupid I overlooked or nobody is using Java7 yet.

Can anybody confirm this problem? What are my alternatives if I still want to use Java7?

Edit: The problem occurs even when running with -Xint, so its not caused by Hotspot bugs.

Edit2: Old drivers (Microsoft 1.28) work properly with JDK1.7.0 (we were using that driver until maybe two years ago, I think). jTDS also works perfectly fine with the example. I am considering switching to jTDS, but I am reluctant to do so because I have not the faintest idea what the effects on our productive environment may be. Ideally it should just work, but that what I believed when I switched my dev box to Java7, too. There is one pretty fat database in the production environment, that is too big to create a copy of, for testing (or rather our server has so little disk left). So setting up a test environment for that one app is not straigthforward, I would have to stitch up a shrinked database for that.

Edit3: jTDS has its own set of catches attached. I found a behavioral difference that breaks one of our applications. ResultSet.getObject() returns different object types for SmallInt columns depending on driver (Short vs Integer). Also jTDS does not implement JDBC4 Connection interface, Connect.isValid() is not supported.

Edit4: I noticed last week that MSSQL-JDBC 3.0 refuses to connect to any DB after I updated to JDK1.6.0_29. jTDS it is then... we switched the productive server yesterday (I fixed tow places where the application was relying on peculiarities of the driver), and so far we had have no problems.

Answer 1

Thank you for your feedback. The Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server does not yet support JRE 1.7.

We are aware of the getDate issue between our JDBC driver & JRE 1.7 and we are looking into publishing a hotfix to enable customers to move forward with non-production testing of our driver with JRE 1.7.

We will publish a link to the hotfix on our blog once available. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jdbcteam/

The hotfix is now available. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jdbcteam/archive/2012/01/20/hotfix-available-for-date-issue-when-using-jre-1-7.aspx

Our blog also contains information on the known issues with JRE 1.6u29 & 1.6u30.

Shamitha Reddy Program Manager - Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server

Answer 2

I don't quite have an answer for you. But, I've recreated your situation as you described. It is the same with the jdbc driver v3.101 and v3.202 and v4.ctp3 when run under jdk1.7. However, the v2 driver from MS gives your expected answer both under jdk1.6 and jdk1.7. If you need a quick fix and can move to an older jdbc driver, that may work for you.

Other thoughts are on how the MS jdbc driver handles dates and conversion of Date objects between SQL Server and the jvm. Since the storage of the date is without a time zone, the interpretation of the Date object by the driver is based on the default time zone for the machine running the jdbc driver. For instance, if you store a smalldate of '2011-10-11 12:00' and retrieve it from a machine with the default time zone set to GMT-7 then the resulting UTC time of the Date object would be '2011-10-11 19:00'. It could be that there is some change in jdk1.7 that impacts this conversion process in the driver resulting in a wild offset. You might experiment with the ResultSet.getDate(column, Calendar) method to see if a Calendar with a specific time zone gets you the result you want or helps make sense of why you are seeing the strange offset in the conversion.