Subtract Months from a Date in SQLite

In SQLite, we can use the DATE() function to subtract one or more months from a date.

For datetime values, we can use the DATETIME() function.

Example

Here’s an example that uses the DATE() function:

SELECT DATE('2050-08-21', '-1 month');

Result:

2050-07-21

If we wanted to add the amount, we could replace - with +, or omit it altogether.

We can specify the months in plural or non-plural form. In other words, month is equivalent to months:

SELECT 
    DATE('2050-08-21', '-2 month') AS month,
    DATE('2050-08-21', '-2 months') AS months;

Result:

month       months    
----------  ----------
2050-06-21  2050-06-21

We can also subtract months based on a number of days:

SELECT DATE('2050-08-21', '-31 days');

Result:

2050-07-21

This example uses the DATETIME() function to subtract a month from a datetime value:

SELECT DATETIME('2050-08-21 18:30:45', '-1 month');

Result:

2050-07-21 18:30:45