Re: Elapsed time between timestamp variables in Function

On 04/02/2009 21:59, Nico Callewaert wrote:

> To keep it simple, I have 2 variables, let's say A and B, both
> TimeStamp.  Now I would like to know the absolute value of elapsed
> seconds between the 2 timestamps.  Has to be absolute value, because
> can be positive or negative, depends if A > B or A < B. I tried with
> age(A, B), but that gives me something like 00:00:01, not really
> numeric value for number of seconds.

I had to do something similar recently (interval to minutes), and rolled
my own:

  create or replace function
  interval_to_minutes(interval)
  returns integer
  as
  $$
    select
      cast(
        (
          extract(hour from $1) * 60
          + extract(minute from $1)
        ) as integer
      );
  $$
  language sql stable;

Then you can do:

  select abs(interval_to_minutes(A - B));

HTH,

Ray.


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Raymond O'Donnell, Director of Music, Galway Cathedral, Ireland
rod@iol.ie
Galway Cathedral Recitals: http://www.galwaycathedral.org/recitals
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