Get a list of dates between two dates

Question

Using standard mysql functions is there a way to write a query that will return a list of days between two dates.

eg given 2009-01-01 and 2009-01-13 it would return a one column table with the values:

 2009-01-01 
 2009-01-02 
 2009-01-03
 2009-01-04 
 2009-01-05
 2009-01-06
 2009-01-07
 2009-01-08 
 2009-01-09
 2009-01-10
 2009-01-11
 2009-01-12
 2009-01-13

Edit: It appears I have not been clear. I want to GENERATE this list. I have values stored in the database (by datetime) but want them to be aggregated on a left outer join to a list of dates as above (I am expecting null from the right side of some of this join for some days and will handle this).

Answer 1

I would use this stored procedure to generate the intervals you need into the temp table named time_intervals, then JOIN and aggregate your data table with the temp time_intervals table.

The procedure can generate intervals of all the different types you see specified in it:

call make_intervals('2009-01-01 00:00:00','2009-01-10 00:00:00',1,'DAY')
.
select * from time_intervals  
.
interval_start      interval_end        
------------------- ------------------- 
2009-01-01 00:00:00 2009-01-01 23:59:59 
2009-01-02 00:00:00 2009-01-02 23:59:59 
2009-01-03 00:00:00 2009-01-03 23:59:59 
2009-01-04 00:00:00 2009-01-04 23:59:59 
2009-01-05 00:00:00 2009-01-05 23:59:59 
2009-01-06 00:00:00 2009-01-06 23:59:59 
2009-01-07 00:00:00 2009-01-07 23:59:59 
2009-01-08 00:00:00 2009-01-08 23:59:59 
2009-01-09 00:00:00 2009-01-09 23:59:59 
.
call make_intervals('2009-01-01 00:00:00','2009-01-01 02:00:00',10,'MINUTE')
. 
select * from time_intervals
.  
interval_start      interval_end        
------------------- ------------------- 
2009-01-01 00:00:00 2009-01-01 00:09:59 
2009-01-01 00:10:00 2009-01-01 00:19:59 
2009-01-01 00:20:00 2009-01-01 00:29:59 
2009-01-01 00:30:00 2009-01-01 00:39:59 
2009-01-01 00:40:00 2009-01-01 00:49:59 
2009-01-01 00:50:00 2009-01-01 00:59:59 
2009-01-01 01:00:00 2009-01-01 01:09:59 
2009-01-01 01:10:00 2009-01-01 01:19:59 
2009-01-01 01:20:00 2009-01-01 01:29:59 
2009-01-01 01:30:00 2009-01-01 01:39:59 
2009-01-01 01:40:00 2009-01-01 01:49:59 
2009-01-01 01:50:00 2009-01-01 01:59:59 
.
I specified an interval_start and interval_end so you can aggregate the 
data timestamps with a "between interval_start and interval_end" type of JOIN.
.
Code for the proc:
.
-- drop procedure make_intervals
.
CREATE PROCEDURE make_intervals(startdate timestamp, enddate timestamp, intval integer, unitval varchar(10))
BEGIN
-- *************************************************************************
-- Procedure: make_intervals()
--    Author: Ron Savage
--      Date: 02/03/2009
--
-- Description:
-- This procedure creates a temporary table named time_intervals with the
-- interval_start and interval_end fields specifed from the startdate and
-- enddate arguments, at intervals of intval (unitval) size.
-- *************************************************************************
   declare thisDate timestamp;
   declare nextDate timestamp;
   set thisDate = startdate;

   -- *************************************************************************
   -- Drop / create the temp table
   -- *************************************************************************
   drop temporary table if exists time_intervals;
   create temporary table if not exists time_intervals
      (
      interval_start timestamp,
      interval_end timestamp
      );

   -- *************************************************************************
   -- Loop through the startdate adding each intval interval until enddate
   -- *************************************************************************
   repeat
      select
         case unitval
            when 'MICROSECOND' then timestampadd(MICROSECOND, intval, thisDate)
            when 'SECOND'      then timestampadd(SECOND, intval, thisDate)
            when 'MINUTE'      then timestampadd(MINUTE, intval, thisDate)
            when 'HOUR'        then timestampadd(HOUR, intval, thisDate)
            when 'DAY'         then timestampadd(DAY, intval, thisDate)
            when 'WEEK'        then timestampadd(WEEK, intval, thisDate)
            when 'MONTH'       then timestampadd(MONTH, intval, thisDate)
            when 'QUARTER'     then timestampadd(QUARTER, intval, thisDate)
            when 'YEAR'        then timestampadd(YEAR, intval, thisDate)
         end into nextDate;

      insert into time_intervals select thisDate, timestampadd(MICROSECOND, -1, nextDate);
      set thisDate = nextDate;
   until thisDate >= enddate
   end repeat;

 END;

Similar example data scenario at the bottom of this post, where I built a similar function for SQL Server.

Answer 2

select * from table_name where col_Date between '2011/02/25' AND DATEADD(s,-1,DATEADD(d,1,'2011/02/27'))

Here, first add a day to the current endDate, it will be 2011-02-28 00:00:00, then you subtract one second to make the end date 2011-02-27 23:59:59. By doing this, you can get all the dates between the given intervals.

output:
2011/02/25
2011/02/26
2011/02/27

Answer 3

You can use MySQL's user variables like this:

SET @num = -1;
SELECT DATE_ADD( '2009-01-01', interval @num := @num+1 day) AS date_sequence, 
your_table.* FROM your_table
WHERE your_table.other_column IS NOT NULL
HAVING DATE_ADD('2009-01-01', interval @num day) <= '2009-01-13'

@num is -1 because you add to it the first time you use it. Also, you can't use "HAVING date_sequence" because that makes the user variable increment twice for each row.

Answer 4

I needed a list with all months between 2 dates for statistics. The 2 dates are the start and enddate from a subscription. So the list shows all months and the amount of subscriptions per month.

MYSQL

CREATE PROCEDURE `get_amount_subscription_per_month`()
BEGIN
   -- Select the ultimate start and enddate from subscribers
   select @startdate := min(DATE_FORMAT(a.startdate, "%Y-%m-01")), 
          @enddate := max(DATE_FORMAT(a.enddate, "%Y-%m-01")) + interval 1 MONTH
   from subscription a;

   -- Tmp table with all months (dates), you can always format them with DATE_FORMAT) 
   DROP TABLE IF EXISTS tmp_months;
   create temporary table tmp_months (
      year_month date,
      PRIMARY KEY (year_month)
   );


   set @tempDate=@startdate;  #- interval 1 MONTH;

   -- Insert every month in tmp table
   WHILE @tempDate <= @enddate DO
     insert into tmp_months (year_month) values (@tempDate);
     set @tempDate = (date(@tempDate) + interval 1 MONTH);
   END WHILE;

   -- All months
   select year_month from tmp_months;

   -- If you want the amount of subscription per month else leave it out
   select mnd.year_month, sum(subscription.amount) as subscription_amount
   from tmp_months mnd
   LEFT JOIN subscription ON mnd.year_month >= DATE_FORMAT(subscription.startdate, "%Y-%m-01") and mnd.year_month <= DATE_FORMAT(subscription.enddate, "%Y-%m-01")
   GROUP BY mnd.year_month;

 END

Answer 5

Create a stored procedure which takes two parameters a_begin and a_end. Create a temporary table within it called t, declare a variable d, assign a_begin to d, and run a WHILE loop INSERTing d into t and calling ADDDATE function to increment the value d. Finally SELECT * FROM t.

Answer 6

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[_DATES]
(
    @startDate DATETIME,
    @endDate DATETIME
)
RETURNS 
@DATES TABLE(
    DATE1 DATETIME
)
AS
BEGIN
    WHILE @startDate <= @endDate
    BEGIN 
        INSERT INTO @DATES (DATE1)
            SELECT @startDate   
    SELECT @startDate = DATEADD(d,1,@startDate) 
    END
RETURN
END