By default, when a query returns a null value in the DuckDB command line interface (CLI), an empty string is displayed. This may or may not be what you want. But if you’re like me, you probably want DuckDB to explicitly tell you that it’s a null value. After all, if an empty string is returned, perhaps the data contained an empty string?
Fortunately, DuckDB provides us with the .nullvalue dot command so that we can change the output of null values.
In DuckDB, the strftime() function is a handy tool for formatting date and timestamp values as strings. It accepts the date/timestamp value and a format string as arguments. The function then returns the date/time in the format provided by the format string.
DuckDB provides us with a bunch of functions that we can use to return the current date and/or time. We can get the date in local time or coordinated universal time (UTC), depending on the function we use. These can be useful in a range of scenarios, such logging the current date in a database column, or filtering or comparing dates based on the current date.
Continue readingDuckDB provides us with a good selection of date/time functions. The strptime() function is a useful one for times where you need to convert a date string into a valid timestamp value; its sole purpose is to parse strings into timestamps.
In this article, we’ll look at how the strptime() function works, along with some examples to demonstrate.
If you’re getting an error that reads “Error: Month out of range, expected a value between 1 and 12” when using the strptime() function in DuckDB, it could be that you’re getting your months mixed up in your format string.
One of the more commonly used aggregate functions in SQL databases is the sum() function, which provides an easy way to calculate the total sum of a numeric column. DuckDB is no exception.
In this article, we’ll explore how the sum() function works in DuckDB, along with some straightforward examples to demonstrate.
When working with dates in DuckDB, extracting specific components like the day is a common task. DuckDB provides a good range of functions that we can use to help us to perform such a task.
This article presents seven different functions we can use to extract the day from a date in DuckDB.
Continue readingWhen working with SQL databases such as DuckDB, dates usually conform to a specific format. In particular, when we create dates in DuckDB, they must conform to the ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD). It’s the same with time (hh:mm:ss[.zzzzzz][+-TT[:tt]]) and timestamp values (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss[.zzzzzzzzz][+-TT[:tt]]).
But what if we have a requirement to present these dates or timestamps in a different format?
Fortunately, DuckDB provides us with tools to so. This article explains how to format date and timestamp values according to a specified format.
Continue readingSometimes we need to subtract a certain time interval from a date when working with DuckDB. We might want to subtract hours, minutes, days, months, or even years.
Below are two methods we can use to subtract one or more years from a date in DuckDB.
Continue readingDuckDB, an in-memory analytical SQL database management system, provides a good selection of functions for data manipulation and analysis. One of the these functions is list().
The list() function enables users to group multiple values into a single list, allowing for more advanced data aggregation and operations.
In this article, we’ll explore how the list() function works, along with some simple examples.