
        
        
            
                
                
                    SELECT SUBDATE(date, INTERVAL expr unit);
SELECT SUBDATE(date, days);

Parameters

1. date | date/datetime

The date or datetime to subtract the time interval from.

2. days | integer

The number of days to subtract from the provided date.

3. expr unit | integer with units

The interval to subtract from the provided date together with its units.

Refer to 'List of units' at the bottom of page for a valid list of units.

WARNING

Either the days or expr unit parameter must be specified, they cannot be used together.

Return value

The result of subtracting the specified interval from date.

Examples

Consider the following information about some students:

student_id	fname	lname	day_enrolled	age	username
1	Sky	Towner	2015-12-03	17	stowner1
2	Ben	Davis	2016-04-20	19	bdavis2
3	Travis	Apple	2018-08-14	18	tapple3
4	Arthur	David	2016-04-01	16	adavid4
5	Benjamin	Town	2014-01-01	17	btown5

The above sample table can be created using the code here.

Basic usage

To subtract 2 days from student enrollment dates:


        
        
            
                
                
                    SELECT fname, day_enrolled, SUBDATE(day_enrolled, 2)
FROM students;
                
            
            +----------+--------------+--------------------------+
| fname    | day_enrolled | SUBDATE(day_enrolled, 2) |
+----------+--------------+--------------------------+
| Sky      | 2015-12-03   | 2015-12-01               |
| Ben      | 2016-04-20   | 2016-04-18               |
| Travis   | 2018-08-14   | 2018-08-12               |
| Arthur   | 2016-04-01   | 2016-03-30               |
| Benjamin | 2014-01-01   | 2013-12-30               |
+----------+--------------+--------------------------+

To subtract 2 months from student enrollment dates:


        
        
            
                
                
                    SELECT fname, day_enrolled, SUBDATE(day_enrolled, INTERVAL 2 MONTH)
FROM students;
                
            
            +----------+--------------+-----------------------------------------+
| fname    | day_enrolled | SUBDATE(day_enrolled, INTERVAL 2 MONTH) |
+----------+--------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Sky      | 2015-12-03   | 2015-10-03                              |
| Ben      | 2016-04-20   | 2016-02-20                              |
| Travis   | 2018-08-14   | 2018-06-14                              |
| Arthur   | 2016-04-01   | 2016-02-01                              |
| Benjamin | 2014-01-01   | 2013-11-01                              |
+----------+--------------+-----------------------------------------+

Negative intervals

To add 1 day to a date:


        
        
            
                
                
                    SELECT SUBDATE('2020-01-01', -1);
                
            
            +---------------------------+
| SUBDATE('2020-01-01', -1) |
+---------------------------+
| 2020-01-02                |
+---------------------------+

Note that there is a separate method ADDDATE(~) specifically for adding intervals to a date / datetime.

List of units

The below table represents a list of units that are supported:

Unit	Expected Input Format
MICROSECOND	`MICROSECONDS`
SECOND	`SECONDS`
MINUTE	`MINUTES`
HOUR	`HOURS`
DAY	`DAYS`
WEEK	`WEEKS`
MONTH	`MONTHS`
QUARTER	`QUARTERS`
YEAR	`YEARS`
SECOND_MICROSECOND	`'SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'`
MINUTE_MICROSECOND	`'MINUTES:SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'`
MINUTE_SECOND	`'MINUTES:SECONDS'`
HOUR_MICROSECOND	`'HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'`
HOUR_SECOND	`'HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS'`
HOUR_MINUTE	`'HOURS:MINUTES'`
DAY_MICROSECOND	`'DAYS HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'`
DAY_SECOND	`'DAYS HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS'`
DAY_MINUTE	`'DAYS HOURS:MINUTES'`
DAY_HOUR	`'DAYS HOURS'`
YEAR_MONTH	`'YEARS-MONTHS'`

Published by Arthur Yanagisawa

Edited by 0 others

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Official MySQL Documentation

https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_subdate

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