SQL Functions

Chapter 11
 Numeric Functions
• ROUND
• DECIMAL
• TRUNC
• MOD
• CEILING
• FLOOR
• ABS

2
 ROUND & DECIMAL Functions
• The ROUND function rounds a numeric value to a specified
number of decimals

• The DECIMAL function returns a decimal representation of a

number

3
 ROUND Function
• Used with both numbers and dates
• Mainly used to round numbers to a specified number of decimal places
• Can be used to round numbers to the left of the decimal point
• If the number of decimal places is not specified or is zero, the number will round
to no decimal places

4
 ROUND Function
• If the number of decimal places is a positive number, the number is rounded to
that number of decimal places

5
 ROUND Function
• If the number of decimal places is a negative number, numbers to the left of the
decimal are rounded

6
 DECIMAL Function
• DECIMAL( numeric_value ), precision, scale)
– Precision – number of digits in the result number
– Scale – number of positions after the decimal point

7
 ROUND & DECIMAL Functions Together
• The ROUND and DECIMAL functions can be used in combination
• ROUND a numeric value
• Then have the rounded number returned with the required
number of decimals

8
ROUND & DECIMAL
Functions Together

9
 TRUNCATE or TRUNC Function
• Truncate a specified value
• Can be used with numbers and dates
• Do not round the number, but simply truncates the number at
the specified point
• If the number of decimal places is not specified or is specified as
zero, the specified number defaults to zero
TRUNCATE(column|expression, decimal_places)
TRUNC(column|expression, decimal_places)
10
TRUNCATE or TRUNC Function

11
 MOD Function
• Returns the remainder from a division operation
• Divides the first argument by the second argument and returns
the remainder

MOD (dividend, divider)

12
 MOD Function
• Can be used to determine whether a value is odd or even
• If a value is divided by 2 and there is no remainder, the number
must be an even number

13
MOD Function

14
 CEILING (CEIL) Function
• Returns the smallest integer value greater than or equal to a
number or numeric-expression
• Rounds up to the next highest integer value
• Argument must be a numeric value or numeric expression that
returns a value of a numeric data type

15
CEILING (CEIL) Function

16
 FLOOR Function
• Returns the largest integer value less than or equal to a number
or numeric-expression
• Rounds down to the next lowest integer value
• Argument must be a numeric value or an expression that returns
a value of a numeric data type

17
FLOOR Function

18
FLOOR Function

19
 ABS Function
• Returns the absolute, or positive value of the numeric values
supplied by the argument

20
 SQL

Date Functions
 Date Format
• The default format for dates is *ISO
– YYYY-MM-DD -- that is, 2025-01-15
• Dates are stored internally with a numeric format representing
century, year, month, day, hour, minute, and second

22
 CURRENT_DATE Function
• CURRENT_DATE function returns the current date
• CURRENT DATE without underscore will work on some DBMS

• CURRENT_DATE -- Returns a date with the format yyyy-mm-dd

(e.g. 2025-03-30)

• CURRENT DATE -- Returns a date with the format yyyy-mm-dd

(e.g. 2025-03-30)

23
 Working with Dates
• YEAR( '2025-03-30' ); -- Returns 2025
• MONTH( '2025-03-30' ) -- Returns 3
• DAY( '2025-03-30' ) -- Returns 30
• WEEK( '2025-03-30' ) -- Returns 14

24
 Working with Dates
• DAYOFWEEK( '2025-03-30' ) -- Returns 1
• DAYOFYEAR( '2025-03-30' ) -- Returns 89
• DAYNAME( '2025-03-30' ) -- Returns Sunday
• MONTHNAME( '2025-03-30' ) -- Returns March

25
 EXTRACT Function
• Extracts a single component from a date

26
 Julian Date Function
• Returns an integer value representing the number of days from
January 1, 4712 B.C. (the start of Julian date calendar) to the
date value specified in the argument

• JULIAN_DAY( '2025-03-30' ) -- Returns 2460765

27
 DAYS Function
• Returns an integer representation of a date from January 1,
0001

28
DAYS Function

29
DAYS Function

30
 + MONTHS
• YEAR/YEARS, MONTH/MONTHS, and DAY/DAYS functions
perform addition and subtraction on dates
• Returns a date
• If the number is negative, the number of years, months, or days
are is subtracted from the date

31
YEARS, MONTHS, & DAYS Functions

32
 MONTHS_BETWEEN Function
• Returns a numeric value of the number of months between two
dates
• If the first date is earlier than the second date, a negative
number is returned

33
MONTHS_BETWEEN Function

34
MONTHS_BETWEEN Function

35
MONTHS_BETWEEN Function

36
 ADD_MONTHS Function
• Add a specified number of months to a date
• Returns a date
• If the number is negative, the number of months is subtracted
from the date
• The ADD_MONTH function has an unusual characteristic as
stated here:
– "If date is the last day of the month or if the resulting month has fewer
days than the day component of date, then the result is the last day of
the resulting month. Otherwise, the result has the same day
component as date." 37
ADD_MONTHS Function

38
 NEXT_DAY Function
• Returns the date of the next occurrence of a specified day of the
week after a given date

39
NEXT_DAY Function

40
 LAST_DAY Function
• Returns the last day of the month from a given date

41
LAST_DAY Function

42
 LAST_DAY + 1
• Returns first day of the next month from a given date

43
First Day of Next Month
LAST_DAY + 1

44
 Nested Example
SELECT employee_id, hire_date,
DECIMAL( ( MONTHS_BETWEEN(CURRENT_DATE, hire_date) /12 ), 4,2) AS years_of_service,
ADD_MONTHS (hire_date, 6) AS review_date,
NEXT_DAY(hire_date, 'FRIDAY') AS NEXT_FRIDAY,
LAST_DAY(hire_date) AS LAST_DAY
FROM employees
WHERE MONTHS_BETWEEN (CURRENT_DATE, hire_date) > 36;

45
 SQL

Conversion Functions
 TO_CHAR Function
• Typecast numeric and date input to a character string

47
 Format Dates with TO_CHAR Function
• Convert dates stored in the default *ISO YYYY-MM-DD format to
a formatted "character" string

TO_CHAR(date_value, 'format model')

• date_value is separated from the 'format model' with a comma
• Format model is optional
– Enclosed in single quotations (')
– Case-sensitive

48
Format Dates with TO_CHAR Function

49
 Format Numeric Values with TO_CHAR Function
• Numeric data types do not contain formatting
– No currency signs/symbols, no commas, no decimals or other
formatting
• TO_CHAR function can be used to convert numeric values into a
formatted character string
• Rounds the numeric value to the number of decimals specified
in the format model.

TO_CHAR (numeric_value, 'format model')

50
Format Numeric Values with TO_CHAR Function

51
 How Functions are Evaluated
SELECT TO_CHAR(NEXT_DAY(ADD_MONTHS(hire_date, 6),'FRIDAY'),
'Day, Month DD, YYYY') AS "Next Evaluation"
FROM employees
WHERE employee_id=100;

• Step 1: Six months is added to hire_date

• Step 2: The first Friday following the future day is determined
• Step 3: The default date format will be formatted to read and display the Friday in a format
similar to: Friday, December 18, 1987, and will appear under the column name "Next
Evaluation."

52
 Conditional Functions

CASE
COALESCE

53
 Simple CASE with Selector
• Evaluates a selector and compares it to several potential values
• A selector is a variable, function, or expression that is compared
to the potential values in the WHEN clauses
– Evaluated from top to bottom
– When there is a match with the selector, the specified action in the
THEN clause is executed and the result is returned
– If no match is found, the action in the ELSE clause is applied

54
Simple CASE with Selector

55
 CASE with Optional ELSE clause
• ELSE clause is optional
• Specified after all WHEN clauses
• Acts like a "catch-all" condition

56
 CASE Expression
with Optional ELSE clause

57
Performing Calculations
in WHEN Clauses

58
Performing Calculations
in WHEN Clauses

59
CASE Function with Selector
in WHERE Clause

60
 Searched Case Function
• Has no selector
• Evaluates multiple WHEN clauses containing Boolean
expressions and returns the first matching condition whose
value is TRUE
• If no matching condition is found among the WHERE clauses, the
action in the ELSE clause is returned

61
Searched Case Function
No ELSE Clause

62
Searched Case Function
ELSE Clause

63
 COALESCE Function
• Pronounced kow-uh-les
• Coalesce means "to come together"
• Is an SQL ANSI standard function

64
 COALESCE Function
• Evaluates the arguments in a list and returns the value of the
first non-null value
• If the first expression is NULL, the function continues down
the list until a non-null expression is found
• The data types of the null value column and the new value must
be the same

65
 COALESCE Function
with Numeric Values
• When a numeric calculation is performed with a NULL value, the
result is NULL
• The COALESCE function converts a NULL value to a number
before numeric calculations are performed to avoid a null result

66
 COALESCE Function
with Numeric Values

67
 COALESCE Function
with Numeric Values

68
 COALESCE Function
with Character Values

69
 COALESCE Function
with Numeric and Character Values

70
71