Subtract

The subtract operator ( - ) subtracts the second operand from the first operand and returns the difference.

Note: A configuration parameter is available to control whether this operator allows precision/scale to exceed 38. See Decimal Digit Limitation on Functions, for details.

DECIMAL and NUMERIC Data Types

When the subtract operator is applied to operands that include DECIMAL or NUMERIC data types, the output data type, precision and scale might depend on the data type, precision and scale of the operands, as shown below.

Syntax

operand1 - operand2

Remarks

•

The order of the inputs (operands) has no effect on the output data type.

•

The outputs for DECIMAL and NUMERIC data types combined with other operands are shown in the table.

Inputs	Output
DECIMAL(p1,s1) - DECIMAL(p2,s2)	DECIMAL(p3,s3), with p3 the larger precision of the inputs, and s3 the larger scale of the inputs.
DECIMAL(p1,s1) - NUMERIC(p2,s2)
NUMERIC - NUMERIC	NUMERIC
DECIMAL(p,s) - not-DECIMAL-or-NUMERIC	DECIMAL(p,s)
NUMERIC - not-DECIMAL-or-NUMERIC	NUMERIC

Examples

DECIMAL(6,1) - DECIMAL(5,2) -> DECIMAL(6,2)

DECIMAL(6,1) - NUMERIC(5,2) -> DECIMAL(6,2)

NUMERIC(6,1) - NUMERIC(5,2) -> NUMERIC(6,2)

INTERVAL Type

INTERVAL can be subtracted from DATE, TIME, TIMESTAMP or another INTERVAL.

Syntax

operand1 - operand2

Remarks

•

INTERVAL can be subtracted from DATE, TIME, TIMESTAMP, or another INTERVAL.

•

Interval days, hours, minutes, or seconds can only be subtracted from other interval days, hours, minutes, or seconds. Interval years or months can only be subtracted from other interval years or months. The two groups of units are not interchangeable.

•

When subtracting months, the TDV Server does not round down the day of the month, and it might throw an error if the day of the month is invalid for the specified month.

•

The order of the inputs (operands) has no effect on the output data type.

•

The outputs for INTERVAL as a subtract operand are shown in the table.

Inputs	Output
DATE - INTERVAL	DATE. Only days, months, and years can be subtracted from a DATE.
INTERVAL - INTERVAL	INTERVAL
INTERVAL - DATE	DATE. Dates can be subtracted from INTERVALs only if the INTERVAL is days, months, or years.
INTERVAL - TIME	TIME
INTERVAL - TIMESTAMP	TIMESTAMP

Examples

TIME '7:00:00' - INTERVAL '0 3:00:00' DAY TO SECOND = TIME '4:00:00'

INTERVAL '10000-11' YEAR(5) TO MONTH - INTERVAL '1' MONTH(1) = INTERVAL '10000-10' 
  YEAR TO MONTH

DATE '1999-12-31' - INTERVAL '365' DAY(3) = DATE '1998-01-01'

Mixed Data Types

The subtract operator can be applied to operands that have a wide variety of data types, including operands comparable or castable to data types that can accept arithmetic operators.

Syntax

operand1 - operand2

Remarks

The operand data types and resulting output data types are shown in the table.

Operand1	Operand2	Output
TINYINT	TINYINT	INTEGER
SMALLINT	SMALLINT
INTEGER	INTEGER
BIGINT	BIGINT
TINYINT SMALLINT INTEGER BIGINT	STRING	INTEGER
TINYINT	FLOAT REAL	FLOAT
SMALLINT
INTEGER
BIGINT
TINYINT SMALLINT INTEGER BIGINT	DECIMAL (p,s) NUMERIC (p,s)	DECIMAL (p,s)
FLOAT REAL	TINYINT SMALLINT INTEGER BIGINT	FLOAT
FLOAT REAL	FLOAT REAL
FLOAT	DECIMAL (p,s)
REAL	DECIMAL (p,s) NUMERIC (p,s)	DECIMAL
DECIMAL NUMERIC	TINYINT SMALLINT INTEGER BIGINT STRING
DECIMAL NUMERIC	FLOAT REAL	DECIMAL
DECIMAL NUMERIC	DECIMAL NUMERIC	DECIMAL
DATE	DATE	An INTERVAL day: the number of days between the two arguments. DATE '2006-03-20' - DATE '2005-12-02' = INTERVAL '108' DAY(3)
DATE	TIMESTAMP STRING	An INTEGER that represents the difference between the dates in the two inputs.
TIME	TIME	An INTERVAL hour to second. TIME '21:00:00' - TIME '19:00:00' = INTERVAL '0 2:00:00' DAY TO SECOND
TIMESTAMP	TIMESTAMP	An INTERVAL day to second. TIMESTAMP '2006-03-20 21:00:00' - TIMESTAMP '2005-12-02 19:00:00' = INTERVAL '108 02:00:00' DAY(3) TO SECOND
TIMESTAMP	DATE STRING	An INTEGER that represents the difference between the dates in the two inputs.
STRING	STRING TINYINT SMALLINT INTEGER BIGINT NUMERIC FLOAT REAL DECIMAL DATE TIMESTAMP	DECIMAL INTEGER INTEGER INTEGER INTEGER DECIMAL FLOAT FLOAT DECIMAL INTEGER INTEGER
NULL	TINYINT SMALLINT INTEGER BIGINT NUMERIC FLOAT REAL DECIMAL DATE TIMESTAMP STRING NULL	NULL
TINYINT SMALLINT INTEGER BIGINT NUMERIC FLOAT REAL DECIMAL DATE TIMESTAMP STRING	NULL