Oracle: how to add minutes to a timestamp?

Question

I need to add 30 minutes to values in a Oracle date column. I do this in my SELECT statement by specifying

to_char(date_and_time + (.000694 * 31)

Answer 1

I prefer using an interval literal for this, because interval '30' minute or interval '5' second is a lot easier to read then 30 / (24 * 60) or 5 / (24 * 60 * 69)

e.g.

• some_date + interval '2' hour
• some_date + interval '30' minute
• some_date + interval '5' second
• some_date + interval '2' day

You can also combine several units into one expression:

• some_date + interval '2 3:06' day to minute

Adds 2 days, 3 hours and 6 minutes to the date value

The above is also standard SQL and also works in several other DBMS.

More details in the manual: https://docs.oracle.com/database/121/SQLRF/sql_elements003.htm#SQLRF00221