Definition:
When storing date and time information in Oracle, there are two basic options for the column's datatype: the DATE datatype and the TIMESTAMP datatype.
The DATE datatype has the ability to store the month, day, year, century, hours, minutes, and seconds. It has a resolution or granularity of 1 second. To distinguish or record events with a separation of less than 1 second, the TIMESTAMP datatype is required.
The TIMESTAMP datatype stores all of the information that the DATE datatype stores, but also includes fractional seconds.
Example of converting a DATE datatype to TIMESTAMP datatype:
SELECT CAST(date1 AS TIMESTAMP) "Date" FROM t;
Date
-----------------------------------------
15-APR-03 06.32.41.000000 PM
21-APR-03 12.42.26.000000 AM
Calculating the time difference between two TIMESTAMP datatypes is very straightforward- you just do straight subtraction of the two timestamp values.
When doing subtraction between dates, remember that the result is a value that represents the number of days. Multiply that number by the number of seconds in a day (86400) to determine the interval or value that you want to find.
For more detailed information on dates and timestamps, please see the Related Links below.
Related Links:
Related Code Snippets:
- Current_timestamp - The current_timestamp function returns the current date and time in the time z...
