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YEARS function [Date and time]

Function

Given two dates, this function returns the integer number of years between them. It is recommended that you use the DATEDIFF function [Date and time] instead for this purpose.

Given one date, it returns the year. It is recommended that you use the DATEPART function [Date and time] instead for this purpose.

Given one date and an integer, it adds the integer number of years to the specified date. It is recommended that you use the DATEADD function [Date and time] instead for this purpose.

Syntax 1 returns an integer. Syntax 2 returns a timestamp.

Syntax 1

YEARS ( [ datetime-expression, ] datetime-expression )

Syntax 2

YEARS ( datetime-expression, integer-expression )

Parameters

datetime-expression A date and time.

integer-expression The number of years to be added to the datetime-expression. If integer-expression is negative, the appropriate number of years is subtracted from the datetime value. If you supply an integer expression, the datetime-expression must be explicitly cast as a datetime data type.

For information on casting data types, see CAST function [Data type conversion].

Usage

The value of YEARS is calculated from the number of first days of the year between the two dates.

Standards and compatibility

SQL/92 Vendor extension.
SQL/99 Vendor extension.
Sybase Not supported by Adaptive Server Enterprise.

Example

The following statements both return –4

SELECT YEARS( '1998-07-13 06:07:12',
              '1994-03-13 08:07:13' )
SELECT DATEDIFF( year,
   '1998-07-13 06:07:12',
   '1994-03-13 08:07:13' )

The following statements return 1998.

SELECT YEARS( '1998-07-13 06:07:12' )
SELECT DATEPART( year, '1998-07-13 06:07:12' )

The following statements return the given date advanced 300 years.

SELECT YEARS(
   CAST( '1998-07-13 06:07:12' AS TIMESTAMP ),
   300 )
SELECT DATEADD( year, 300,
   '1998-07-13 06:07:12' )