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Using Greatest function on 2 dates, one can be null

From: Kelly Gallagher <Kelly_Gallagher_at_unc.edu>
Date: 17 May 2004 11:09:20 -0700
Message-ID: <4c84c3e7.0405171009.24b4ce7f@posting.google.com>


Hello,
I have been searching this newsgroup and trying some code for a few hours but so far have been beating my head against a wall it seems.

I need to get the greater value of two date fields, one of which might be null. I've tried using greatest(date1, nvl(date2,0)) and select greatest(date1, decode(date2,date2,null,0)) but neither are working since dates and numbers are not the same datatypes. I've been trying to find out how to convert a date to a simple number but cannot find that either. I think that Oracle's starting date is Jan 01, 1970; do I have to do something like this : GREATEST(date1, nvl(date2, to_date('01-JAN-1970')) ? That looks really ugly to me :)
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Kelly Gallagher Received on Mon May 17 2004 - 13:09:20 CDT

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