EXTRACT(field FROM source)

The extract function retrieves subfields such as year or hour from date/time values. source must be a value expression of type timestamp, date, time, or interval. (Timestamps and times can be with or without time zone.) field is an identifier or string that selects what field to extract from the source value. Not all fields are valid for every input data type; for example, fields smaller than a day cannot be extracted from a date, while fields of a day or more cannot be extracted from a time. The extract function returns values of type numeric.

The following are valid field names:

When processing an interval value, the extract function produces field values that match the interpretation used by the interval output function. This can produce surprising results if one starts with a non-normalized interval representation, for example:

SELECT INTERVAL '80 minutes';
Result: 01:20:00
SELECT EXTRACT(MINUTES FROM INTERVAL '80 minutes');
Result: 20

The extract function is primarily intended for computational processing. For formatting date/time values for display, see Section 9.8.

The date_part function is modeled on the traditional Ingres equivalent to the SQL-standard function extract:

date_part('field', source)

Note that here the field parameter needs to be a string value, not a name. The valid field names for date_part are the same as for extract. For historical reasons, the date_part function returns values of type double precision. This can result in a loss of precision in certain uses. Using extract is recommended instead.

SELECT date_part('day', TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');
Result: 16
SELECT date_part('hour', INTERVAL '4 hours 3 minutes');
Result: 4

The function date_trunc is conceptually similar to the trunc function for numbers.

date_trunc(field, source [, time_zone ])

source is a value expression of type timestamp, timestamp with time zone, or interval. (Values of type date and time are cast automatically to timestamp or interval, respectively.) field selects to which precision to truncate the input value. The return value is likewise of type timestamp, timestamp with time zone, or interval, and it has all fields that are less significant than the selected one set to zero (or one, for day and month).

Valid values for field are:

When the input value is of type timestamp with time zone, the truncation is performed with respect to a particular time zone; for example, truncation to day produces a value that is midnight in that zone. By default, truncation is done with respect to the current TimeZone setting, but the optional time_zone argument can be provided to specify a different time zone. The time zone name can be specified in any of the ways described in Section 8.5.3.

A time zone cannot be specified when processing timestamp without time zone or interval inputs. These are always taken at face value.

Examples (assuming the local time zone is America/New_York):

SELECT date_trunc('hour', TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');
Result: 2001-02-16 20:00:00
SELECT date_trunc('year', TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');
Result: 2001-01-01 00:00:00
SELECT date_trunc('day', TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE '2001-02-16 20:38:40+00');
Result: 2001-02-16 00:00:00-05
SELECT date_trunc('day', TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE '2001-02-16 20:38:40+00', 'Australia/Sydney');
Result: 2001-02-16 08:00:00-05
SELECT date_trunc('hour', INTERVAL '3 days 02:47:33');
Result: 3 days 02:00:00

The function date_bin “bins” the input timestamp into the specified interval (the stride) aligned with a specified origin.

date_bin(stride, source, origin)

source is a value expression of type timestamp or timestamp with time zone. (Values of type date are cast automatically to timestamp.) stride is a value expression of type interval. The return value is likewise of type timestamp or timestamp with time zone, and it marks the beginning of the bin into which the source is placed.

Examples:

SELECT date_bin('15 minutes', TIMESTAMP '2020-02-11 15:44:17', TIMESTAMP '2001-01-01');
Result: 2020-02-11 15:30:00
SELECT date_bin('15 minutes', TIMESTAMP '2020-02-11 15:44:17', TIMESTAMP '2001-01-01 00:02:30');
Result: 2020-02-11 15:32:30

In the case of full units (1 minute, 1 hour, etc.), it gives the same result as the analogous date_trunc call, but the difference is that date_bin can truncate to an arbitrary interval.

The stride interval must be greater than zero and cannot contain units of month or larger.

The AT TIME ZONE operator converts time stamp without time zone to/from time stamp with time zone, and time with time zone values to different time zones. Table 9.34 shows its variants.

In these expressions, the desired time zone zone can be specified either as a text value (e.g., 'America/Los_Angeles') or as an interval (e.g., INTERVAL '-08:00'). In the text case, a time zone name can be specified in any of the ways described in Section 8.5.3. The interval case is only useful for zones that have fixed offsets from UTC, so it is not very common in practice.

Examples (assuming the current TimeZone setting is America/Los_Angeles):

SELECT TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40' AT TIME ZONE 'America/Denver';
Result: 2001-02-16 19:38:40-08
SELECT TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE '2001-02-16 20:38:40-05' AT TIME ZONE 'America/Denver';
Result: 2001-02-16 18:38:40
SELECT TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40' AT TIME ZONE 'Asia/Tokyo' AT TIME ZONE 'America/Chicago';
Result: 2001-02-16 05:38:40

The first example adds a time zone to a value that lacks it, and displays the value using the current TimeZone setting. The second example shifts the time stamp with time zone value to the specified time zone, and returns the value without a time zone. This allows storage and display of values different from the current TimeZone setting. The third example converts Tokyo time to Chicago time.

The function timezone(zone, timestamp) is equivalent to the SQL-conforming construct timestamp AT TIME ZONE zone.

Postgres Pro provides a number of functions that return values related to the current date and time. These SQL-standard functions all return values based on the start time of the current transaction:

CURRENT_DATE
CURRENT_TIME
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
CURRENT_TIME(precision)
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(precision)
LOCALTIME
LOCALTIMESTAMP
LOCALTIME(precision)
LOCALTIMESTAMP(precision)

CURRENT_TIME and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP deliver values with time zone; LOCALTIME and LOCALTIMESTAMP deliver values without time zone.

CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, LOCALTIME, and LOCALTIMESTAMP can optionally take a precision parameter, which causes the result to be rounded to that many fractional digits in the seconds field. Without a precision parameter, the result is given to the full available precision.

Some examples:

SELECT CURRENT_TIME;
Result: 14:39:53.662522-05
SELECT CURRENT_DATE;
Result: 2019-12-23
SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
Result: 2019-12-23 14:39:53.662522-05
SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(2);
Result: 2019-12-23 14:39:53.66-05
SELECT LOCALTIMESTAMP;
Result: 2019-12-23 14:39:53.662522

Since these functions return the start time of the current transaction, their values do not change during the transaction. This is considered a feature: the intent is to allow a single transaction to have a consistent notion of the “current” time, so that multiple modifications within the same transaction bear the same time stamp.

Postgres Pro also provides functions that return the start time of the current statement, as well as the actual current time at the instant the function is called. The complete list of non-SQL-standard time functions is:

transaction_timestamp()
statement_timestamp()
clock_timestamp()
timeofday()
now()

transaction_timestamp() is equivalent to CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, but is named to clearly reflect what it returns. statement_timestamp() returns the start time of the current statement (more specifically, the time of receipt of the latest command message from the client). statement_timestamp() and transaction_timestamp() return the same value during the first command of a transaction, but might differ during subsequent commands. clock_timestamp() returns the actual current time, and therefore its value changes even within a single SQL command. timeofday() is a historical Postgres Pro function. Like clock_timestamp(), it returns the actual current time, but as a formatted text string rather than a timestamp with time zone value. now() is a traditional Postgres Pro equivalent to transaction_timestamp().

All the date/time data types also accept the special literal value now to specify the current date and time (again, interpreted as the transaction start time). Thus, the following three all return the same result:

SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
SELECT now();
SELECT TIMESTAMP 'now';  -- but see tip below

The following functions are available to delay execution of the server process:

pg_sleep ( double precision )
pg_sleep_for ( interval )
pg_sleep_until ( timestamp with time zone )

pg_sleep makes the current session's process sleep until the given number of seconds have elapsed. Fractional-second delays can be specified. pg_sleep_for is a convenience function to allow the sleep time to be specified as an interval. pg_sleep_until is a convenience function for when a specific wake-up time is desired. For example:

SELECT pg_sleep(1.5);
SELECT pg_sleep_for('5 minutes');
SELECT pg_sleep_until('tomorrow 03:00');