How to average time intervals?

Question

In Oracle 10g I have a table that holds timestamps showing how long certain operations took. It has two timestamp fields: starttime and endtime. I want to find averages of t

Answer 1

SQL Fiddle

Oracle 11g R2 Schema Setup:

Create a type to use when performing a custom aggregation:

CREATE TYPE IntervalAverageType AS OBJECT(
  total INTERVAL DAY(9) TO SECOND(9),
  ct    INTEGER,

  STATIC FUNCTION ODCIAggregateInitialize(
    ctx         IN OUT IntervalAverageType
  ) RETURN NUMBER,

  MEMBER FUNCTION ODCIAggregateIterate(
    self        IN OUT IntervalAverageType,
    value       IN     INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND
  ) RETURN NUMBER,

  MEMBER FUNCTION ODCIAggregateTerminate(
    self        IN OUT IntervalAverageType,
    returnValue    OUT INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND,
    flags       IN     NUMBER
  ) RETURN NUMBER,

  MEMBER FUNCTION ODCIAggregateMerge(
    self        IN OUT IntervalAverageType,
    ctx         IN OUT IntervalAverageType
  ) RETURN NUMBER
);
/

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY IntervalAverageType
IS
  STATIC FUNCTION ODCIAggregateInitialize(
    ctx         IN OUT IntervalAverageType
  ) RETURN NUMBER
  IS
  BEGIN
    ctx := IntervalAverageType( INTERVAL '0' DAY, 0 );
    RETURN ODCIConst.SUCCESS;
  END;

  MEMBER FUNCTION ODCIAggregateIterate(
    self        IN OUT IntervalAverageType,
    value       IN     INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND
  ) RETURN NUMBER
  IS
  BEGIN
    IF value IS NOT NULL THEN
      self.total := self.total + value;
      self.ct    := self.ct + 1;
    END IF;
    RETURN ODCIConst.SUCCESS;
  END;

  MEMBER FUNCTION ODCIAggregateTerminate(
    self        IN OUT IntervalAverageType,
    returnValue    OUT INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND,
    flags       IN     NUMBER
  ) RETURN NUMBER
  IS
  BEGIN
    IF self.ct = 0 THEN
      returnValue := NULL;
    ELSE
      returnValue := self.total / self.ct;
    END IF;
    RETURN ODCIConst.SUCCESS;
  END;

  MEMBER FUNCTION ODCIAggregateMerge(
    self        IN OUT IntervalAverageType,
    ctx         IN OUT IntervalAverageType
  ) RETURN NUMBER
  IS
  BEGIN
    self.total := self.total + ctx.total;
    self.ct    := self.ct + ctx.ct;
    RETURN ODCIConst.SUCCESS;
  END;
END;
/

Then you can create a custom aggregation function:

CREATE FUNCTION AVERAGE( difference INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND )
RETURN INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND
PARALLEL_ENABLE AGGREGATE USING IntervalAverageType;
/

Query 1:

WITH INTERVALS( diff ) AS (
  SELECT INTERVAL '0' DAY FROM DUAL UNION ALL
  SELECT INTERVAL '1' DAY FROM DUAL UNION ALL
  SELECT INTERVAL '-1' DAY FROM DUAL UNION ALL
  SELECT INTERVAL '8' HOUR FROM DUAL UNION ALL
  SELECT NULL FROM DUAL
)
SELECT AVERAGE( diff ) FROM intervals

Results:

| AVERAGE(DIFF) |
|---------------|
|     0 2:0:0.0 |