Returning proper values using CONCAT function

Question

Okay, so say I'm using the CONCAT function, right?

So I have a date in a field called start_date. It looks like 2016-02-07.

Next, I subqueried that to do MONTH(start_date) AS start_month and YEAR(start_date) as start_year. Obviously, start_month would return 02 and start_year returns 2016.

Now lets say I wanted to combine those two so it says 02/2016. If I simply do:

CONCAT('start_month', '/', 'start_year') it returns start_month/start_year and if I do CONCAT(start_month, '/', start_year) it returns Error: CONCAT: The 1st argument has type int64 but expected type string or bytes.

So what am I doing wrong and how do I fix this? Additionally, is there an easy way I can convert the numerical months to their actual names (i.e. 02 becomes February)? If there isn't an easy way, its not a huge deal.

Mikhail Berlyant · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-30 15:32:16Z

2

from question: Obviously, start_month would return 02 and start_year returns 2016.

Nope - they will return 2 and 2016 respectivelly and as integers not as strings - see more on MONTH() and/or Date and time functions

So you should cast month and year values to STRING

For example,
CONCAT(STRING(start_month), '/', STRING(start_year))

The better way to do this is as below

SELECT STRFTIME_UTC_USEC('2016-02-07', "%m-%Y")

see here for more details

is there an easy way I can convert the numerical months to their actual names (i.e. 02 becomes February)?

SELECT STRFTIME_UTC_USEC('2016-02-07', "%B")

edited Mar 30, 2016 at 15:32

answered Mar 30, 2016 at 15:21

Mikhail Berlyant

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