How to use DATE in the where clause

Question

I need to select list of records from a table where available date is greater than or equal to current date. Below is the table structure and
select query used to get the list of records
CREATE TABLE TEMP (ITEM_ID NUMBER(20),ITEM_NAME VARCHAR2(100),CREATION_DATE DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE DATE);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(1,'ITEM1',SYSDATE,SYSDATE);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(2,'ITEM2',SYSDATE,SYSDATE+10);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(3,'ITEM3',SYSDATE,SYSDATE-10);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(4,'ITEM4',SYSDATE,SYSDATE);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(5,'ITEM5',SYSDATE,SYSDATE+5);
SELECT ITEM_NAME, available_date FROM TEMP WHERE available_date > SYSDATE OR available_date LIKE SYSDATE;I am getting the expected records but i am not able to find a condition where i can use *>=* for date data type, a query like the below one is
not returning expected records
SELECT ITEM_NAME, available_date FROM TEMP WHERE available_date >= SYSDATE ;Edited by: Balaji on Mar 19, 2012 9:13 PM

Answer 1

Hi,
Balaji wrote:
I need to select list of records from a table where available date is greater than or equal to current date. Below is the table structure and
select query used to get the list of records
CREATE TABLE TEMP (ITEM_ID NUMBER(20),ITEM_NAME VARCHAR2(100),CREATION_DATE DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE DATE);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(1,'ITEM1',SYSDATE,SYSDATE);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(2,'ITEM2',SYSDATE,SYSDATE+10);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(3,'ITEM3',SYSDATE,SYSDATE-10);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(4,'ITEM4',SYSDATE,SYSDATE);
INSERT INTO TEMP (ITEM_ID,ITEM_NAME,CREATION_DATE,AVAILABLE_DATE) VALUES(5,'ITEM5',SYSDATE,SYSDATE+5);
SELECT ITEM_NAME, available_date FROM TEMP WHERE available_date > SYSDATE OR available_date LIKE SYSDATE;
Both operands to LIKE are supposed to be strings. Don't try to use a DATE, such as SYSDATE, with LIKE.
I am getting the expected records but i am not able to find a condition where i can use *>=* for date data type, a query like the below one is
not returning expected records
SELECT ITEM_NAME, available_date FROM TEMP WHERE available_date >= SYSDATE ;
It's returning the results I expect.
If you'd say what results you were expecting, someone could help you wite a query to get them.
Assuming 1 second elapses between the time 'ITEM4' is inserted and the time the 2nd query is run, then, at run-time, available_date will be 1 second less than SYSDATE, so it should not be included.
If you want to find rows that are on the same calendar day as SYSDATE, or later, then use
WHERE    available_date >= TRUNC (SYSDATE)