How to compare two dates to find time difference in SQL Server 2005, date manipulation

I have two columns:

job_start                         job_end
2011-11-02 12:20:37.247           2011-11-02 13:35:14.613

How would it be possible using T-SQL to find the raw amount of time that has passed between when the job started and when the job ended?

I tried this:

select    (job_end - job_start) from tableA

but ended up with this:

1900-01-01 01:14:37.367

Take a look at the DateDiff() function.

-- Syntax
-- DATEDIFF ( datepart , startdate , enddate )

-- Example usage
SELECT DATEDIFF(DAY, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS DayDiff
SELECT DATEDIFF(MINUTE, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS MinuteDiff
SELECT DATEDIFF(SECOND, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS SecondDiff
SELECT DATEDIFF(WEEK, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS WeekDiff
SELECT DATEDIFF(HOUR, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS HourDiff
...

You can see it in action / play with it here

You can use the DATEDIFF function to get the difference in minutes, seconds, days etc.

SELECT DATEDIFF(MINUTE,job_start,job_end)

MINUTE obviously returns the difference in minutes, you can also use DAY, HOUR, SECOND, YEAR (see the books online link for the full list).

If you want to get fancy you can show this differently for example 75 minutes could be displayed like this: 01:15:00:0

Here is the code to do that for both SQL Server 2005 and 2008

-- SQL Server 2005
SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(10),DATEADD(MINUTE,DATEDIFF(MINUTE,job_start,job_end),'2011-01-01 00:00:00.000'),114)

-- SQL Server 2008
SELECT CAST(DATEADD(MINUTE,DATEDIFF(MINUTE,job_start,job_end),'2011-01-01 00:00:00.000') AS TIME)

Cast the result as TIME and the result will be in time format for duration of the interval.

select CAST(job_end - job_start) AS TIME(0)) from tableA

I think you need the time gap between job_start & job_end.

Try this...

select SUBSTRING(CONVERT(VARCHAR(20),(job_end - job_start),120),12,8) from tableA

I ended up with this.

01:14:37

Declare the Start and End date DECLARE @SDATE AS DATETIME

TART_DATE  AS DATETIME
DECLARE @END_-- Set Start and End date
SET @START_DATE = GETDATE()
SET @END_DATE    = DATEADD(SECOND, 3910, GETDATE())

-- Get the Result in HH:MI:SS:MMM(24H) format SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(12), DATEADD(MS, DATEDIFF(MS, @START_DATE, @END_DATE), 0), 114) AS TimeDiff

Take a look at DATEDIFF, this should be what you're looking for. It takes the two dates you're comparing, and the date unit you want the difference in (days, months, seconds...)

If your database StartTime = 07:00:00 and endtime = 14:00:00, and both are time type. Your query to get the time difference would be:

SELECT TIMEDIFF(Time(endtime ), Time(StartTime )) from tbl_name

If your database startDate = 2014-07-20 07:00:00 and endtime = 2014-07-20 23:00:00, you can also use this query.

Try this in Sql Server

SELECT 
      start_date as firstdate,end_date as seconddate
	   ,cast(datediff(MI,start_date,end_date)as decimal(10,3)) as minutediff
	  ,cast(cast(cast(datediff(MI,start_date,end_date)as decimal(10,3)) / (24*60) as int ) as varchar(10)) + ' ' + 'Days' + ' ' 
	  + cast(cast((cast(datediff(MI,start_date,end_date)as decimal(10,3)) / (24*60) - 
	    floor(cast(datediff(MI,start_date,end_date)as decimal(10,3)) / (24*60)) ) * 24 as int) as varchar(10)) + ':' 

	 + cast( cast(((cast(datediff(MI,start_date,end_date)as decimal(10,3)) / (24*60) 
	  - floor(cast(datediff(MI,start_date,end_date)as decimal(10,3)) / (24*60)))*24
	    -
		cast(floor((cast(datediff(MI,start_date,end_date)as decimal(10,3)) / (24*60) 
	  - floor(cast(datediff(MI,start_date,end_date)as decimal(10,3)) / (24*60)))*24) as decimal)) * 60 as int) as varchar(10))

	FROM [AdventureWorks2012].dbo.learndate

Below code gives in hh:mm format.

select RIGHT(LEFT(job_end- job_start,17),5)

I used following logic and it worked for me like marvel:

CONVERT(TIME, DATEADD(MINUTE, DATEDIFF(MINUTE, AP.Time_IN, AP.Time_OUT), 0)) 

If you trying to get worked hours with some accuracy, try this (tested in SQL Server 2016)

SELECT DATEDIFF(MINUTE,job_start, job_end)/60.00;

Various DATEDIFF functionalities are:

SELECT DATEDIFF(year,        '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(quarter,     '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(month,       '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(dayofyear,   '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(day,         '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(week,        '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(hour,        '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(minute,      '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(second,      '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');
SELECT DATEDIFF(millisecond, '2005-12-31 23:59:59.9999999', '2006-01-01 00:00:00.0000000');

Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/functions/datediff-transact-sql?view=sql-server-2017