Dates & times

PRQL uses @ followed by a string to represent dates & times. This is less verbose than SQL’s approach of TIMESTAMP '2004-10-19 10:23:54' and more explicit than SQL’s implicit option of just using a string '2004-10-19 10:23:54'.

Note

Currently PRQL passes strings which can be compiled straight through to the database, and so many compatible formats string may work, but we may refine this in the future to aid in compatibility across databases. We’ll always support the canonical ISO8601 format described below.

Dates

Dates are represented by @{yyyy-mm-dd} — a @ followed by the date format.

PRQL

  1. from employees
  2. derive age_at_year_end = (@2022-12-31 - dob)

SQL

  1. SELECT
  2.   *,
  3.   DATE '2022-12-31' - dob AS age_at_year_end
  4. FROM
  5.   employees

Times

Times are represented by @{HH:mm:ss.SSS±Z} with any parts not supplied being rounded to zero, including the timezone, which is represented by +HH:mm, -HH:mm or Z. This is consistent with the ISO8601 time format.

PRQL

  1. from orders
  2. derive should_have_shipped_today = (order_time < @08:30)

SQL

  1. SELECT
  2.   *,
  3.   order_time < TIME '08:30' AS should_have_shipped_today
  4. FROM
  5.   orders

Timestamps

Timestamps are represented by @{yyyy-mm-ddTHH:mm:ss.SSS±Z} / @{date}T{time}, with any time parts not supplied being rounded to zero, including the timezone, which is represented by +HH:mm, -HH:mm or Z (: is optional). This is @ followed by the ISO8601 datetime format, which uses T to separate date & time.

PRQL

  1. from commits
  2. derive first_prql_commit = @2020-01-01T13:19:55-08:00

SQL

  1. SELECT
  2.   *,
  3.   TIMESTAMP '2020-01-01T13:19:55-08:00' AS first_prql_commit
  4. FROM
  5.   commits

Intervals

Intervals are represented by {N}{periods}, such as 2years or 10minutes, without a space.

Note

These aren’t the same as ISO8601, because we evaluated P3Y6M4DT12H30M5S to be difficult to understand, but we could support a simplified form if there’s demand for it. We don’t currently support compound expressions, for example 2years10months, but most DBs will allow 2years + 10months. Please raise an issue if this is inconvenient.

PRQL

  1. from projects
  2. derive first_check_in = start + 10days

SQL

  1. SELECT
  2.   *,
  3.   start + INTERVAL 10 DAY AS first_check_in
  4. FROM
  5.   projects

Examples

Here’s a fuller list of examples:

  • @20221231 is invalid — it must contain full punctuation (- and :),
  • @2022-12-31 is a date
  • @2022-12 or @2022 are invalid — SQL can’t express a month, only a date
  • @16:54:32.123456 is a time
  • @16:54:32, @16:54, @16 are all allowed, expressing @16:54:32.000000, @16:54:00.000000, @16:00:00.000000 respectively
  • @2022-12-31T16:54:32.123456 is a timestamp without timezone
  • @2022-12-31T16:54:32.123456Z is a timestamp in UTC
  • @2022-12-31T16:54+02 is timestamp in UTC+2
  • @2022-12-31T16:54+02:00 and @2022-12-31T16:54+02 are datetimes in UTC+2
  • @16:54+02 is invalid — time is always local, so it cannot have a timezone
  • @2022-12-31+02 is invalid — date is always local, so it cannot have a timezone

Roadmap

Datetimes

Datetimes are supported by some databases (e.g. MySql, BigQuery) in addition to timestamps. When we have type annotations, these will be represented by a timestamp annotated as a datetime:

These are some examples we can then add:

  • @2022-12-31T16:54<datetime> is datetime without timezone
  • @2022-12-31<datetime> is forbidden — datetime must specify time
  • @16:54<datetime> is forbidden — datetime must specify date