DATEDIFF function in Oracle

Solution 1:

In Oracle, you can simply subtract two dates and get the difference in days. Also note that unlike SQL Server or MySQL, in Oracle you cannot perform a select statement without a from clause. One way around this is to use the builtin dummy table, dual:

SELECT TO_DATE('2000-01-02', 'YYYY-MM-DD') -  
       TO_DATE('2000-01-01', 'YYYY-MM-DD') AS DateDiff
FROM   dual

Solution 2:

Just subtract the two dates:

select date '2000-01-02' - date '2000-01-01' as dateDiff
from dual;

The result will be the difference in days.

More details are in the manual:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e41084/sql_elements001.htm#i48042

Solution 3:

You can simply subtract two dates. You have to cast it first, using to_date:

select to_date('2000-01-01', 'yyyy-MM-dd')
       - to_date('2000-01-02', 'yyyy-MM-dd')
       datediff
from   dual
;

The result is in days, to the difference of these two dates is -1 (you could swap the two dates if you like). If you like to have it in hours, just multiply the result with 24.