Converting number from 0 to 1

Question

Hi,
Iam generating a query in which the following fields are used:
date1, date2 of data type character. I am calculating the difference between two dates and applying sum function. query is as follows
select sum(translate((To_Date((date2),'yyyymmdd') - To_date((date1),'yyyymmdd')),0,1)) from disdate
problem 1:- if dont use translate when date1 and date2 are equal it is giving value 0 so i used translate to convert 0 to 1 and apply sum function over the result. But it is converting even the number 10 to 11.
Can any one suggest me a solution?
thankyou
satyanag

Answer 1

I've found in the past that if you want to calculate the period of time for something then you want to add 1 onto your calculation.
for example:
with t as (select sysdate as fromdate, sysdate as todate from dual
          union all select sysdate-1, sysdate from dual)
select todate - fromdate from t         
0
1let's say we're talking about policies. the first record has a duration of one day (starts and ends on the same day) so you should add 1 to the calculation
the second one is quite obviously 2 days in duration so you should add 1 to make it reflect the true state of afairs:
with t as (select sysdate as fromdate, sysdate as todate from dual
          union all select sysdate-1, sysdate from dual)
select todate - fromdate + 1 from t      
1
2