Setting incorrect value for `timestamp` causes date to be set as UTC and to return as a string

[coolaj86]

I had accidentally set { "timestamp": "America/Denver" } and I would get back MySQL strings instead of JavaScript Dates.

I would have expected

• an exception - bad values should throw errors
• or the default to be used - bad values could also be ignored, and the default used

What I got was

• inserted values would be transposed - as if the UTC hours value was used, but set as if it were local
• selected values would return as strings - rather than returning as date objects

The solution was to use { "timestamp": "local" }.

As far as I can tell { "timestamp": "UTC" } and { "timestamp": "-06:00" } had no effect.

[adjetey0]

The driver doesn’t validate the option strictly, it treats unknown values as “don’t parse dates,” so it just returns strings. That’s why you didn’t see an error, just strange behavior.