Date & time data types¶

DATE¶

Snowflake supports a single DATE data type for storing dates (with no time elements).

DATE accepts dates in the most common forms (YYYY-MM-DD, DD-MON-YYYY, and so on).

In addition, all accepted TIMESTAMP values are valid inputs for dates, but the TIME information is truncated.

DATETIME¶

DATETIME is an alias for TIMESTAMP_NTZ.

TIME¶

Snowflake supports a single TIME data type for storing times in the form of HH:MI:SS.

TIME supports an optional precision parameter for fractional seconds (for example, TIME(3)). Time precision can range from 0 (seconds) to 9 (nanoseconds). The default precision is 9.

All TIME values must be between 00:00:00 and 23:59:59.999999999. TIME internally stores “wallclock” time, and all operations on TIME values are performed without taking any time zone into consideration.

TIMESTAMP_LTZ , TIMESTAMP_NTZ , TIMESTAMP_TZ¶

Snowflake supports three variations of timestamp.

TIMESTAMP_LTZ:

TIMESTAMP_LTZ internally stores UTC time with a specified precision. However, all operations are performed in the current session’s time zone, controlled by the TIMEZONE session parameter.

Aliases for TIMESTAMP_LTZ:

• TIMESTAMPLTZ

• TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE

TIMESTAMP_NTZ:

TIMESTAMP_NTZ internally stores “wallclock” time with a specified precision. All operations are performed without taking any time zone into account.

If the output format contains a time zone, the UTC indicator (Z) is displayed.

TIMESTAMP_NTZ is the default for TIMESTAMP.

Aliases for TIMESTAMP_NTZ:

• TIMESTAMPNTZ

• TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE

• DATETIME

TIMESTAMP_TZ:

TIMESTAMP_TZ internally stores UTC time together with an associated time zone offset. When a time zone isn’t provided, the session time zone offset is used. All operations are performed with the time zone offset specific to each record.

Aliases for TIMESTAMP_TZ:

• TIMESTAMPTZ

• TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE

TIMESTAMP_TZ values are compared based on their times in UTC. For example, the following comparison between different times in different timezones returns TRUE because the two values have equivalent times in UTC.

SELECT '2024-01-01 00:00:00 +0000'::TIMESTAMP_TZ = '2024-01-01 01:00:00 +0100'::TIMESTAMP_TZ;

Copy

SELECT '2024-01-01 12:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_TZ;

+-------------------------------------+
| '2024-01-01 12:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_TZ |
|-------------------------------------|
| 2024-01-01 12:00:00.000 -0800       |
+-------------------------------------+

SELECT DATEADD(MONTH, 6, '2024-01-01 12:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_TZ);

+--------------------------------------------------------+
| DATEADD(MONTH, 6, '2024-01-01 12:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_TZ) |
|--------------------------------------------------------|
| 2024-07-01 12:00:00.000 -0800                          |
+--------------------------------------------------------+

ALTER SESSION SET TIMESTAMP_TYPE_MAPPING = TIMESTAMP_NTZ;

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE ts_test(ts TIMESTAMP);

DESC TABLE ts_test;

+------+------------------+--------+-------+---------+-------------+------------+-------+------------+---------+-------------+----------------+
| name | type             | kind   | null? | default | primary key | unique key | check | expression | comment | policy name | privacy domain |
|------+------------------+--------+-------+---------+-------------+------------+-------+------------+---------+-------------+----------------|
| TS   | TIMESTAMP_NTZ(9) | COLUMN | Y     | NULL    | N           | N          | NULL  | NULL       | NULL    | NULL        | NULL           |
+------+------------------+--------+-------+---------+-------------+------------+-------+------------+---------+-------------+----------------+

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE ts_test(ts TIMESTAMP_LTZ);

DESC TABLE ts_test;

+------+------------------+--------+-------+---------+-------------+------------+-------+------------+---------+-------------+----------------+
| name | type             | kind   | null? | default | primary key | unique key | check | expression | comment | policy name | privacy domain |
|------+------------------+--------+-------+---------+-------------+------------+-------+------------+---------+-------------+----------------|
| TS   | TIMESTAMP_LTZ(9) | COLUMN | Y     | NULL    | N           | N          | NULL  | NULL       | NULL    | NULL        | NULL           |
+------+------------------+--------+-------+---------+-------------+------------+-------+------------+---------+-------------+----------------+

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE ts_test(ts TIMESTAMP_LTZ);

ALTER SESSION SET TIMEZONE = 'America/Los_Angeles';

INSERT INTO ts_test VALUES('2024-01-01 16:00:00');
INSERT INTO ts_test VALUES('2024-01-02 16:00:00 +00:00');

SELECT ts, HOUR(ts) FROM ts_test;

+-------------------------------+----------+
| TS                            | HOUR(TS) |
|-------------------------------+----------|
| 2024-01-01 16:00:00.000 -0800 |       16 |
| 2024-01-02 08:00:00.000 -0800 |        8 |
+-------------------------------+----------+

ALTER SESSION SET TIMEZONE = 'America/New_York';

SELECT ts, HOUR(ts) FROM ts_test;

+-------------------------------+----------+
| TS                            | HOUR(TS) |
|-------------------------------+----------|
| 2024-01-01 19:00:00.000 -0500 |       19 |
| 2024-01-02 11:00:00.000 -0500 |       11 |
+-------------------------------+----------+

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE ts_test(ts TIMESTAMP_NTZ);

ALTER SESSION SET TIMEZONE = 'America/Los_Angeles';

INSERT INTO ts_test VALUES('2024-01-01 16:00:00');
INSERT INTO ts_test VALUES('2024-01-02 16:00:00 +00:00');

SELECT ts, HOUR(ts) FROM ts_test;

+-------------------------+----------+
| TS                      | HOUR(TS) |
|-------------------------+----------|
| 2024-01-01 16:00:00.000 |       16 |
| 2024-01-02 16:00:00.000 |       16 |
+-------------------------+----------+

ALTER SESSION SET TIMEZONE = 'America/New_York';

SELECT ts, HOUR(ts) FROM ts_test;

+-------------------------+----------+
| TS                      | HOUR(TS) |
|-------------------------+----------|
| 2024-01-01 16:00:00.000 |       16 |
| 2024-01-02 16:00:00.000 |       16 |
+-------------------------+----------+

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE ts_test(ts TIMESTAMP_TZ);

ALTER SESSION SET TIMEZONE = 'America/Los_Angeles';

INSERT INTO ts_test VALUES('2024-01-01 16:00:00');
INSERT INTO ts_test VALUES('2024-01-02 16:00:00 +00:00');

SELECT ts, HOUR(ts) FROM ts_test;

+-------------------------------+----------+
| TS                            | HOUR(TS) |
|-------------------------------+----------|
| 2024-01-01 16:00:00.000 -0800 |       16 |
| 2024-01-02 16:00:00.000 +0000 |       16 |
+-------------------------------+----------+

ALTER SESSION SET TIMEZONE = 'America/New_York';

SELECT ts, HOUR(ts) FROM ts_test;

+-------------------------------+----------+
| TS                            | HOUR(TS) |
|-------------------------------+----------|
| 2024-01-01 16:00:00.000 -0800 |       16 |
| 2024-01-02 16:00:00.000 +0000 |       16 |
+-------------------------------+----------+

Examples of using date and time formats¶

The following example uses FF to indicate that the output has 9 digits in the fractional seconds field:

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE timestamp_demo_table(
  tstmp TIMESTAMP,
  tstmp_tz TIMESTAMP_TZ,
  tstmp_ntz TIMESTAMP_NTZ,
  tstmp_ltz TIMESTAMP_LTZ);
INSERT INTO timestamp_demo_table (tstmp, tstmp_tz, tstmp_ntz, tstmp_ltz) VALUES (
  '2024-03-12 01:02:03.123456789',
  '2024-03-12 01:02:03.123456789',
  '2024-03-12 01:02:03.123456789',
  '2024-03-12 01:02:03.123456789');

ALTER SESSION SET TIMESTAMP_OUTPUT_FORMAT = 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF';
ALTER SESSION SET TIMESTAMP_TZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT = 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF';
ALTER SESSION SET TIMESTAMP_NTZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT = 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF';
ALTER SESSION SET TIMESTAMP_LTZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT = 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF';

SELECT tstmp, tstmp_tz, tstmp_ntz, tstmp_ltz
  FROM timestamp_demo_table;

+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| TSTMP                         | TSTMP_TZ                      | TSTMP_NTZ                     | TSTMP_LTZ                     |
|-------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| 2024-03-12 01:02:03.123456789 | 2024-03-12 01:02:03.123456789 | 2024-03-12 01:02:03.123456789 | 2024-03-12 01:02:03.123456789 |
+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+

Supported date and time parts for intervals¶

The INTERVAL keyword supports the following date and time parts as arguments (case-insensitive):

Interval examples¶

Add a year interval to a specific date:

SELECT TO_DATE('2023-04-15') + INTERVAL '1 year';

+-------------------------------------------+
| TO_DATE('2023-04-15') + INTERVAL '1 YEAR' |
|-------------------------------------------|
| 2024-04-15                                |
+-------------------------------------------+

Add an interval of 3 hours and 18 minutes to a specific time:

SELECT TO_TIME('04:15:29') + INTERVAL '3 hours, 18 minutes';

+------------------------------------------------------+
| TO_TIME('04:15:29') + INTERVAL '3 HOURS, 18 MINUTES' |
|------------------------------------------------------|
| 07:33:29                                             |
+------------------------------------------------------+

Add a complex interval to the output of the CURRENT_TIMESTAMP function:

SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP + INTERVAL
    '1 year, 3 quarters, 4 months, 5 weeks, 6 days, 7 minutes, 8 seconds,
    1000 milliseconds, 4000000 microseconds, 5000000001 nanoseconds'
  AS complex_interval1;

The following is sample output. The output is different when the current timestamp is different.

+-------------------------------+
| COMPLEX_INTERVAL1             |
|-------------------------------|
| 2026-11-07 18:07:19.875000001 |
+-------------------------------+

Add a complex interval with abbreviated date/time part notation to a specific date:

SELECT TO_DATE('2025-01-17') + INTERVAL
    '1 y, 3 q, 4 mm, 5 w, 6 d, 7 h, 9 m, 8 s,
    1000 ms, 445343232 us, 898498273498 ns'
  AS complex_interval2;

+-------------------------------+
| COMPLEX_INTERVAL2             |
|-------------------------------|
| 2027-03-30 07:31:32.841505498 |
+-------------------------------+

Query a table of employee information and return the names of employees who were hired within the past two years and three months:

SELECT name, hire_date
  FROM employees
  WHERE hire_date > CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '2 y, 3 month';

Filter a TIMESTAMP column named ts from a table named t1 and add four seconds to each returned value:

SELECT ts + INTERVAL '4 seconds'
  FROM t1
  WHERE ts > TO_TIMESTAMP('2024-04-05 01:02:03');

Date arithmetic examples¶

Add one day to a specific date:

SELECT TO_DATE('2024-04-15') + 1;

+---------------------------+
| TO_DATE('2024-04-15') + 1 |
|---------------------------|
| 2024-04-16                |
+---------------------------+

Subtract four days from a specific date:

SELECT TO_DATE('2024-04-15') - 4;

+---------------------------+
| TO_DATE('2024-04-15') - 4 |
|---------------------------|
| 2024-04-11                |
+---------------------------+

Query a table named employees and return the names of people who left the company, but were employed more than 365 days:

SELECT name
  FROM employees
  WHERE end_date > start_date + 365;