Year to date report - how do I get dates without hard coding a year?

Question

I am writing a monthly report that will run for example on Sept1 but want to extract data for Jan 1, 2012 thru Aug 31, 2012. But also need to consider when I run report on Jan 1, 2013 for all of 2012. I know I could use the add_months(sysdate,-1) to get previous month but then will still have issues running on Jan 2013 for the year.
SELECT data
FROM tables
WHERE data_date between start-date (which would be Jan 1, 2012 but also when I run on Jan 1 2013 for previous year)
and last_day(add_months(sysdate, -1)
Thanks in advance
Jackie

Answer 1

Hi,
This would do it :SQL> !cat q.sql
with t (dt, val) as (
     select to_date('2011/01/04','yyyy/mm/dd'), 123 from dual union all
     select to_date('2011/04/09','yyyy/mm/dd'), 234 from dual union all
     select to_date('2011/06/28','yyyy/mm/dd'), 345 from dual union all
     select to_date('2011/10/18','yyyy/mm/dd'), 456 from dual union all
     select to_date('2011/12/23','yyyy/mm/dd'), 567 from dual union all
     select to_date('2012/01/07','yyyy/mm/dd'), 678 from dual union all
     select to_date('2012/05/13','yyyy/mm/dd'), 789 from dual union all
     select to_date('2012/07/19','yyyy/mm/dd'), 890 from dual union all
     select to_date('2012/08/30','yyyy/mm/dd'), 901 from dual union all
     select to_date('2012/09/22','yyyy/mm/dd'), 012 from dual
------ end of sample data ------
select *
from t
where dt >= trunc( add_months(trunc( &&dateexec. ,'month'),-1) ,'year')
and dt < trunc( &&dateexec. ,'month')
undefine dateexecThe dateexec parameter is just here to "simulate" sysdate of different points in year.
<i>(your actual query would have sysdate where the dateexec parameter appears)</i>
SQL> @q
Enter value for dateexec: sysdate
DT                         VAL
07/01/2012 00:00:00        678
13/05/2012 00:00:00        789
19/07/2012 00:00:00        890 sysdate does the current year up to previous month.
SQL> @q
Enter value for dateexec: to_date('20120122','yyyymmdd')
DT                         VAL
04/01/2011 00:00:00        123
09/04/2011 00:00:00        234
28/06/2011 00:00:00        345
18/10/2011 00:00:00        456
23/12/2011 00:00:00        567when ran in january, it retrieves all the previous year.