SECONDS function [Date and time]

The behavior of this function can vary depending on what you supply:

  • If you give a single date, this function returns the number of seconds since 0000-02-29.
    Note

    0000-02-29 is not meant to imply an actual date; it is the date used by the date algorithm.

  • If you give two time stamps, this function returns the integer number of seconds between them. Instead, use the DATEDIFF function.
  • If you give a date and an integer, this function adds the integer number of seconds to the specified timestamp. Instead, use the DATEADD function.
Syntax 1: integer
SECONDS( [ datetime-expression, ] datetime-expression )
Syntax 2: timestamp
SECONDS( datetime-expression, integer-expression )
Parameters
  • datetime-expression   A date and time.

  • integer-expression   The number of seconds to be added to the datetime-expression. If integer-expression is negative, the appropriate number of minutes is subtracted from the datetime value. If you supply an integer expression, the datetime-expression must be explicitly cast as a datetime data type.

See also
Standards and compatibility
  • SQL/2003   Vendor extension.

Example

The following statements return the value 14400, signifying that the second timestamp is 14400 seconds after the first.

SELECT SECONDS( '1999-07-13 06:07:12',
   '1999-07-13 10:07:12' );

SELECT DATEDIFF( second,
   '1999-07-13 06:07:12',
   '1999-07-13 10:07:12' );

The following statement returns the value 63062431632.

SELECT SECONDS( '1998-07-13 06:07:12' );

The following statements return the datetime 1999-05-12 21:05:12.0.

SELECT SECONDS( CAST( '1999-05-12 21:05:07'
AS TIMESTAMP ), 5);
SELECT DATEADD( second, 5, '1999-05-12 21:05:07' );