Hi in the between operator how to use date column

Question

Hi
I have one small doubut ,once i try to get the results perticular between dates ,it not working
ex:- in the emp table i try get the employess u hire between 01-jan-80 to 03-jan-80
once i use query select * from emp where hiredate between '01-jan-80' and '03-jan-80'
it is display differnt data.
plz help i want data only 01,2nd and 3rd jan data only how to write query.
Thank's

Answer 1

Hi,
When you want to hard-code a DATE, don't just use a string. Use the TO_DATE function, for example
TO_DATE ( '01-jan-1980'
        , 'dd-mon-yyyy'
        )or use a DATE literal (always specified in 'YYYY-MM-DD' format):
DATE '1980-01-01'Remember that DATE expressions always include the time of day. If you use TO_DATE without specifying the time, or a DATE literal (as I did above) the time defaults to midnight, which is the first point in time on that day.
If you are certain that your all DATEs in your table are at midnight, you can use BETWEEN like this:
select  *
from      emp
where      hiredate between TO_DATE ('01-jan-1980', 'dd-mon-yyyy')
           and       TO_DATE ('03-jan-1980', 'dd-mon-yyyy')
;If your table did have a hiredate such as January 3, 1980, 10:35 am, the query above would not choose it (because 10:35 is later than midnight.)
Because of the problems with BETWEEN, some people do two comparisons instead:
select  *
from      emp
where      hiredate >= TO_DATE ('01-jan-1980', 'dd-mon-yyyy')
and      hiredate <  TO_DATE ('03-jan-1980', 'dd-mon-yyyy') + 1
;This will pick anything on January 3, 1980, regardless of its time.
Edited by: Frank Kulash on Aug 5, 2009 10:49 AM