ADD_MONTHS

Syntax

Description of the illustration add_months.eps

Purpose

ADD_MONTHS returns the date date plus integer months. A month is defined by the session parameter NLS_CALENDAR. The date argument can be a datetime value or any value that can be implicitly converted to DATE. The integer argument can be an integer or any value that can be implicitly converted to an integer. The return type is always DATE, regardless of the data type of date. If date is the last day of the month or if the resulting month has fewer days than the day component of date, then the result is the last day of the resulting month. Otherwise, the result has the same day component as date.

See Also:

Table 2-8 for more information on implicit conversion

Examples

The following example returns the month after the hire_date in the sample table employees:

SELECT TO_CHAR(ADD_MONTHS(hire_date, 1), 'DD-MON-YYYY') "Next month"
  FROM employees 
  WHERE last_name = 'Baer';

Next Month
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07-JUL-2002