Subtract Days from a Date in PostgreSQL

We can subtract one or more days from a date in PostgreSQL with the - operator.

Examples

The simplest way to subtract one or more days from a date is to use an integer, like this:

SELECT date '2022-10-12' - 7;

Result:

2022-10-05

Or like this:

SELECT date '2022-10-12' - integer '7';

Result:

2022-10-05

We can also specify intervals when subtracting from dates. To subtract days, we can use day or days:

SELECT date '2022-10-12' - interval '1 day';

Result:

2022-10-11 00:00:00

And in plural form:

SELECT date '2022-10-12' - interval '7 days';

Result:

2022-10-05 00:00:00

Another way to do it is to specify the number in its hourly equivalent:

SELECT date '2022-10-12' - interval '24 hours';

Result:

2022-10-11 00:00:00

We can also add negative values to dates. To subtract a negative amount, we can use the negative value with the + sign:

Example:

SELECT date '2022-10-12' + interval '-7 days';

Result:

2022-10-05 00:00:00

We can do the same thing with the integer option:

SELECT date '2022-10-12' + integer '-7';

Result:

2022-10-05