DATETIME qual1 TO qual2

The DATETIME data type stores date and time data with time units from the year to fractions of a second.

Syntax

DATETIME qual1 TO qual2

where qual1 can be one of:

  YEAR
  MONTH
  DAY
  HOUR
  MINUTE
  SECOND
  FRACTION

and qual2 can be one of:

  YEAR
  MONTH
  DAY
  HOUR
  MINUTE
  SECOND
  FRACTION
  FRACTION(1)
  FRACTION(2)
  FRACTION(3)
  FRACTION(4)
  FRACTION(5)

The DATETIME data type stores an instance in time, expressed as a calendar date and time-of-day.

The qual1 and qual2 qualifiers define the precision of the DATETIME variable. The precision can range from a year through a fraction of second.

DATETIME arithmetic is based on the INTERVAL data type, and can be combined with DATE values:

Table 1. Datetime Arithmetic operators
Left Operand Type	Operator	Right Operand Type	Result Type
`DATETIME`	`-`	`DATETIME`	`INTERVAL`
`DATETIME`	`-`	`DATE`	`INTERVAL`
`DATETIME`	`-`	`INTERVAL`	`DATETIME`
`DATETIME`	`+`	`INTERVAL`	`DATETIME`

The CURRENT operator provides current system date/time.

You can assign DATETIME variables with datetime literals with a specific notation.

DATETIME variables are initialized to NULL in functions, modules and globals.

DATETIME values can be converted to strings by the format YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss.fffff.

MAIN
  DEFINE d1, d2 DATETIME YEAR TO MINUTE
  LET d1 = CURRENT YEAR TO MINUTE 
  LET d2 = "1998-01-23 12:34"
  DISPLAY d1, d2
END MAIN