PostgreSQL Tutorial: AGE Function: Calculate Ages

September 19, 2023

Summary: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the PostgreSQL AGE() function to calculate ages.

Table of Contents

Introduction to PostgreSQL AGE function

We typically have to calculate ages in business applications e.g., ages of people, years of services of employees, etc. In PostgreSQL, you can use the AGE() function to achieve these tasks.

The following illustrates the syntax of the AGE() function:

AGE(timestamp,timestamp);

The AGE() function accepts two TIMESTAMP values. It subtracts the second argument from the first one and returns an interval as a result.

See the following example:

SELECT AGE('2017-01-01','2011-06-24');

          AGE
-----------------------
 5 years 6 mons 7 days
(1 row)

If you want to take the current date as the first argument, you can use the following form of the AGE() function:

AGE(timestamp);

For example, if someone has a birth date2000-01-01 and the current date is 2017-03-20, his/her age will be:

SELECT current_date, 
       AGE(timestamp '2000-01-01');

    date    |           AGE
------------+-------------------------
 2017-03-20 | 17 years 2 mons 19 days
(1 row)

PostgreSQL AGE function example

See the following rental table in the sample database:

PostgreSQL age Function: Rental Table Sample

Suppose you want to get the top 10 rentals that have the longest durations, you can use the AGE() function to calculate it as follows:

SELECT rental_id,
         customer_id,
         AGE(return_date,
             rental_date) AS duration
FROM rental
WHERE return_date IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY  duration DESC 
LIMIT 10;

In this example, use the AGE() function to calculate the rental duration based on the values of the rental_date and return_date columns. The following shows the output:

 rental_id | customer_id |    duration
-----------+-------------+-----------------
      2412 |         127 | 9 days 05:59:00
     14678 |         383 | 9 days 05:59:00
     13947 |         218 | 9 days 05:58:00
     14468 |         224 | 9 days 05:58:00
      7874 |          86 | 9 days 05:58:00
     11629 |         299 | 9 days 05:58:00
      5738 |         187 | 9 days 05:56:00
      9938 |          63 | 9 days 05:56:00
     12159 |         106 | 9 days 05:55:00
      3873 |         394 | 9 days 05:55:00
(10 rows)