Doubt regarding Date Comparison

Question

Hello,
i am facing a problem in date comparison
SELECT max(l.id)
FROM irf_bill_details l
WHERE to_char(l.agreement_id) = '508814'
AND l.billing_client_id = 'BHPIF'
AND extract(YEAR FROM l.bill_date) < extract(YEAR FROM to_date('01-Jan-2010', 'dd-Mon-yyyy'))
So when i am using this Query m getting the result ...BUT ...
When i use the Below Query .... i am getting NULL ... So the problem surely is in when comparing with months ..?? how to get rid
SELECT max(l.id)
FROM irf_bill_details l
WHERE to_char(l.agreement_id) = '508814'
AND l.billing_client_id = 'BHPIF'
AND extract(YEAR FROM l.bill_date) < extract(YEAR FROM to_date('01-Jan-2010', 'dd-Mon-yyyy'))
AND extract(MONTH FROM l.bill_date)||'-'||extract(YEAR FROM l.bill_date) < extract(MONTH FROM to_date('01-Jan-2010', 'dd-Mon-yyyy'))||'-'||extract(YEAR FROM to_date('01-Jan-2010', 'dd-Mon-yyyy'))
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Answer 1

Aijaz Mallick wrote:
Hello,
i am facing a problem in date comparison
SELECT max(l.id)
FROM irf_bill_details l
WHERE to_char(l.agreement_id) = '508814'
AND l.billing_client_id = 'BHPIF'
AND extract(YEAR FROM l.bill_date) < extract(YEAR FROM to_date('01-Jan-2010', 'dd-Mon-yyyy'))
So when i am using this Query m getting the result ...BUT ...
When i use the Below Query .... i am getting NULL ... So the problem surely is in when comparing with months ..?? how to get ridAre you saying that you're still getting one row of output, but the id on the row is NULL?
SELECT max(l.id)
FROM irf_bill_details l
WHERE to_char(l.agreement_id) = '508814'
AND l.billing_client_id = 'BHPIF'
AND extract(YEAR FROM l.bill_date) < extract(YEAR FROM to_date('01-Jan-2010', 'dd-Mon-yyyy'))
AND extract(MONTH FROM l.bill_date)||'-'||extract(YEAR FROM l.bill_date) < extract(MONTH FROM to_date('01-Jan-2010', 'dd-Mon-yyyy'))||'-'||extract(YEAR FROM to_date('01-Jan-2010', 'dd-Mon-yyyy'))
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Whenever you have a problem, post some sampel data (CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements) and the results you want from that data. Explain how you get those results from that data.
As long as I don't know where you're starting from (sample data) or where you want to go (results) it's hard for me to give you good diorections.
I suspect you want to be using TRUNC rather than EXTRACT, if not a plain DATE comparison.
For example, if you have a string p_cutoff_date (such as '01-Jan-2010', but not necessaily the 1st of the month) and you want to see if l.bill_date is earlier than the beginning of the month that contains p_cutoff_date, then:
WHERE   l.bill_date < TRUNC ( TO_DATE ( p_cutoff_date
                                      , 'dd-Mon-yyyy'
                   , 'MONTH'
                   )As you said in the subject line, you're trying to compare DATEs. So compare DATEs: don't convert them to NUMBERS (using EXTRACT) and then to strings (using ||); keep the DATEs as DATEs.