I'm trying to generate a series in PostgreSQL with the generate_series function. I need a series of months starting from Jan 2008 until current month + 12 (a year out). I'm using and restricted to PostgreSQL 8.3.14 (so I don't have the timestamp series options in 8.4).
I know how to get a series of days like:
select generate_series(0,365) + date '2008-01-01'
But I am not sure how to do months.
select DATE '2008-01-01' + (interval '1' month * generate_series(0,11))
Edit
If you need to calculate the number dynamically, the following could help:
select DATE '2008-01-01' + (interval '1' month * generate_series(0,month_count::int))
from (
select extract(year from diff) * 12 + extract(month from diff) + 12 as month_count
from (
select age(current_timestamp, TIMESTAMP '2008-01-01 00:00:00') as diff
) td
) t
This calculates the number of months since 2008-01-01 and then adds 12 on top of it.
But I agree with Scott: you should put this into a set returning function, so that you can do something like select * from calc_months(DATE '2008-01-01')
SELECT to_char(DATE '2008-01-01' + (interval '1 month' * generate_series(0,56)), 'Mon-YY') AS months The question is now, how to calculate 56 instead of statically defining it in the query above. 56 is the number of months since Jan 2008 + 12.
select ((extract (year from current_date + interval '12' month) - 2008) * 12) + (extract (month from current_date + interval '12' month) - 1) will give you the right number of months.
You can interval generate_series like this:
SELECT date '2014-02-01' + interval '1' month * s.a AS date
FROM generate_series(0,3,1) AS s(a);
Which would result in:
date
---------------------
2014-02-01 00:00:00
2014-03-01 00:00:00
2014-04-01 00:00:00
2014-05-01 00:00:00
(4 rows)
You can also join in other tables this way:
SELECT date '2014-02-01' + interval '1' month * s.a AS date, t.date, t.id
FROM generate_series(0,3,1) AS s(a)
LEFT JOIN <other table> t ON t.date=date '2014-02-01' + interval '1' month * s.a;
You can interval generate_series like this:
SELECT TO_CHAR(months, 'YYYY-MM') AS "dateMonth"
FROM generate_series(
'2008-01-01' :: DATE,
'2008-06-01' :: DATE ,
'1 month'
) AS months
Which would result in:
dateMonth
-----------
2008-01
2008-02
2008-03
2008-04
2008-05
2008-06
(6 rows)
SELECT TO_CHAR(months, 'YYYY-MM-DD') AS "dateMonth" FROM generate_series( '2008-01-31' :: DATE, '2008-06-30' :: DATE , '1 month' ) AS months will generate series of "2008-01-31" "2008-02-29" "2008-03-29" "2008-04-29" "2008-05-29" "2008-06-29"In the generated_series() you can define the step, which is one month in your case. So, dynamically you can define the starting date (i.e. 2008-01-01), the ending date (i.e. 2008-01-01 + 12 months) and the step (i.e. 1 month).
SELECT generate_series('2008-01-01', '2008-01-01'::date + interval '12 month', '1 month')::date AS generated_dates
and you get
1/1/2008
2/1/2008
3/1/2008
4/1/2008
5/1/2008
6/1/2008
7/1/2008
8/1/2008
9/1/2008
10/1/2008
11/1/2008
12/1/2008
1/1/2009
Well, if you only need months, you could do:
select extract(month from days)
from(
select generate_series(0,365) + date'2008-01-01' as days
)dates
group by 1
order by 1;
and just parse that into a date string...
But since you know you'll end up with months 1,2,..,12, why not just go with select generate_series(1,12);?
