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Different Ways To Define An Interval

postgres Written August 04, 2023

There are several different ways in PostgreSQL to define an interval data type. An interval is useful because it can represent a discrete chunk of time. This is handy for doing date math.

Here are four different ways to define an interval:

  1. Use the interval keyword with a string
> select interval '3 days';
 interval
----------
 3 days
(1 row)
  1. Cast a string to the interval type
> select '3 days'::interval;
 interval
----------
 3 days
(1 row)
  1. The @ operator is a finicky syntax for declaring an interval
> select @ 3 days;
 days
------
    3
(1 row)
  1. The make_interval function can take various forms of arguments to construct an interval
> select make_interval(days => 3);
 make_interval
---------------
 3 days
(1 row)

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