Sqlite convert string to date

Question

As Sqlite doesn't have a date type you will need to do string comparison to achieve this. For that to work you need to reverse the order - eg from dd/MM/yyyy to yyyyMMdd, using something like

where substr(column,7)||substr(column,4,2)||substr(column,1,2) 
      between '20101101' and '20101130'

Saved date as TEXT( 20/10/2013 03:26 ) To do query and to select records between dates?

Better version is:

SELECT TIMSTARTTIMEDATE 
FROM TIMER 
WHERE DATE(substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,7,4)
||substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,4,2)
||substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,1,2)) 
BETWEEN DATE(20131020) AND DATE(20131021);

the substr from 20/10/2013 gives 20131020 date format DATE(20131021) - that makes SQL working with dates and using date and time functions.

OR

SELECT TIMSTARTTIMEDATE 
FROM TIMER 
WHERE DATE(substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,7,4)
||'-'
||substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,4,2)
||'-'
||substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,1,2)) 
BETWEEN DATE('2013-10-20') AND DATE('2013-10-21');

and here is in one line

SELECT TIMSTARTTIMEDATE FROM TIMER WHERE DATE(substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,7,4)||'-'||substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,4,2)||'-'||substr(TIMSTARTTIMEDATE,1,2)) BETWEEN DATE('2013-10-20') AND DATE('2013-10-21');

One thing you should look into is the SQLite date and time functions, especially if you're going to have to manipulate a lot of dates. It's the sane way to use dates, at the cost of changing the internal format (has to be ISO, i.e. yyyy-MM-dd).

The UDF approach is my preference compared to brittle substr values.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sqlite3
from dateutil import parser
from pprint import pprint


def date_parse(s):
    ''' Converts a string to a date '''
    try:
        t = parser.parse(s, parser.parserinfo(dayfirst=True))
        return t.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
    except:
        return None


def dict_factory(cursor, row):
    ''' Helper for dict row results '''
    d = {}
    for idx, col in enumerate(cursor.description):
        d[col[0]] = row[idx]
    return d


def main():
    ''' Demonstrate UDF '''
    with sqlite3.connect(":memory:") as conn:
        conn.row_factory = dict_factory
        setup(conn)

        ##################################################
        # This is the code that matters. The rest is setup noise.
        conn.create_function("date_parse", 1, date_parse)
        cur = conn.cursor()
        cur.execute(''' select "date", date_parse("date") as parsed from _test order by 2; ''')
        pprint(cur.fetchall())
        ##################################################

def setup(conn):
    ''' Setup some values to parse '''
    cur = conn.cursor()

    # Make a table
    sql = '''
    create table _test (
        "id" integer primary key,
        "date" text
    );
    '''
    cur.execute(sql)

    # Fill the table
    dates = [
        '2/1/03', '03/2/04', '4/03/05', '05/04/06',
        '6/5/2007', '07/6/2008', '8/07/2009', '09/08/2010',
        '2-1-03', '03-2-04', '4-03-05', '05-04-06',
        '6-5-2007', '07-6-2008', '8-07-2009', '09-08-2010',
        '31/12/20', '31-12-2020',
        'BOMB!',
    ]
    params = [(x,) for x in dates]
    cur.executemany(''' insert into _test ("date") values(?); ''', params)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

This will give you these results:

[{'date': 'BOMB!', 'parsed': None},
 {'date': '2/1/03', 'parsed': '2003-01-02'},
 {'date': '2-1-03', 'parsed': '2003-01-02'},
 {'date': '03/2/04', 'parsed': '2004-02-03'},
 {'date': '03-2-04', 'parsed': '2004-02-03'},
 {'date': '4/03/05', 'parsed': '2005-03-04'},
 {'date': '4-03-05', 'parsed': '2005-03-04'},
 {'date': '05/04/06', 'parsed': '2006-04-05'},
 {'date': '05-04-06', 'parsed': '2006-04-05'},
 {'date': '6/5/2007', 'parsed': '2007-05-06'},
 {'date': '6-5-2007', 'parsed': '2007-05-06'},
 {'date': '07/6/2008', 'parsed': '2008-06-07'},
 {'date': '07-6-2008', 'parsed': '2008-06-07'},
 {'date': '8/07/2009', 'parsed': '2009-07-08'},
 {'date': '8-07-2009', 'parsed': '2009-07-08'},
 {'date': '09/08/2010', 'parsed': '2010-08-09'},
 {'date': '09-08-2010', 'parsed': '2010-08-09'},
 {'date': '31/12/20', 'parsed': '2020-12-31'},
 {'date': '31-12-2020', 'parsed': '2020-12-31'}]

The SQLite equivalent of anything this robust is a tangled weave of substr and instr calls that you should avoid.

If Source Date format isn't consistent there is some problem with substr function, e.g.:

1/1/2017 or 1/11/2017 or 11/11/2017 or 1/1/17 etc.

So I followed a different apporach using a temporary table. This snippet outputs 'YYYY-MM-DD' + time if exists.

Note that this version accepts Day/Month/Year format. If you want Month/Day/Year swap the first two variables DayPart and MonthPart. Also, two year dates '44-'99 assumes 1944-1999 whereas '00-'43 assumes 2000-2043.

 BEGIN;

    CREATE TEMP TABLE [DateconvertionTable] (Id TEXT PRIMARY KEY, OriginalDate  TEXT  , SepA  INTEGER,  DayPart TEXT,Rest1 TEXT, SepB  INTEGER,  MonthPart TEXT, Rest2 TEXT, SepC  INTEGER,  YearPart TEXT, Rest3 TEXT, NewDate TEXT);
    INSERT INTO [DateconvertionTable] (Id,OriginalDate)  SELECT SourceIdColumn, SourceDateColumn From  [SourceTable];

    --day Part (If day is first)

    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET SepA=instr(OriginalDate ,'/');
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET DayPart=substr(OriginalDate,1,SepA-1) ;
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET Rest1=substr(OriginalDate,SepA+1);

    --Month Part (If Month is second)

    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET SepB=instr(Rest1,'/');
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable]  SET MonthPart=substr(Rest1, 1,SepB-1);
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET Rest2=substr(Rest1,SepB+1);

    --Year Part (3d)

    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET SepC=instr(Rest2,' ');

           --Use Cases In case of time string included
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable]  SET YearPart= CASE WHEN SepC=0 THEN Rest2 ELSE substr(Rest2,1,SepC-1)  END;

           --The Rest considered time
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable]  SET Rest3= CASE WHEN SepC=0 THEN  '' ELSE substr(Rest2,SepC+1) END;

           -- Convert 1 digit day and month to 2 digit
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET DayPart=0||DayPart WHERE CAST(DayPart AS INTEGER)<10;
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET MonthPart=0||MonthPart WHERE CAST(MonthPart AS INTEGER)<10;

           --If there is a need to convert 2 digit year to 4 digit year, make some assumptions...
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET YearPart=19||YearPart WHERE CAST(YearPart AS INTEGER)>=44 AND CAST(YearPart AS INTEGER)<100;
    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET YearPart=20||YearPart WHERE CAST(YearPart AS INTEGER)<44 AND CAST(YearPart AS INTEGER)<100;

    UPDATE [DateconvertionTable] SET NewDate = YearPart  || '-' || MonthPart || '-' || DayPart || ' ' || Rest3;  

    UPDATE [SourceTable] SET SourceDateColumn=(Select NewDate FROM DateconvertionTable WHERE [DateconvertionTable].id=SourceIdColumn);
    END;

This is for fecha(TEXT) format date YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss for instance I want all the records of Ene-05-2014 (2014-01-05):

SELECT 
 fecha 
FROM 
 Mytable 
WHERE 
 DATE(substr(fecha ,1,4) ||substr(fecha ,6,2)||substr(fecha ,9,2))
BETWEEN 
 DATE(20140105) 
AND 
 DATE(20140105);

I am storing the date as 'DD-MON-YYYY format (10-Jun-2016) and below query works for me to search records between 2 dates.

select date, substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2),  case 
substr(date, 4,3) 
when 'Jan' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Jan' , '01')) 
when 'Feb' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Feb' , '02')) 
when 'Mar' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Mar' , '03')) 
when 'Apr' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Apr' , '04')) 
when 'May' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'May' , '05')) 
when 'Jun' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Jun' , '06')) 
when 'Jul' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Jul' , '07')) 
when 'Aug' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Aug' , '08')) 
when 'Sep' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Sep' , '09')) 
when 'Oct' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Oct' , '10')) 
when 'Nov' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Nov' , '11')) 
when 'Dec' then strftime('%s', replace(substr(date,8,11) || '-' || substr(date,4,4) || substr(date, 1,2), 'Dec' , '12')) 
else '0' end as srcDate from payment where srcDate >= strftime('%s', '2016-07-06') and srcDate <= strftime('%s', '2016-09-06');