Subtraction

Returns the difference between two numeric, date, timestamp, or interval-compatible operands.

Category: binary

SQL symbol: -

Syntax

sql

<left> - <right>

Parameters

<left> — The value to subtract from. Accepts date, decimal, float, integer, interval, timestamp.
<right> — The value to subtract. Subtracting one TIMESTAMP from another gives an INTERVAL; subtracting an INTERVAL from a timestamp gives a timestamp. Accepts date, decimal, float, integer, interval, timestamp.

Returns

decimal, float, integer, interval, timestamp

Examples

sql

SELECT name, aphelion - perihelion FROM $planets LIMIT 3;

Mercury | 23.800003051757812
Venus | 1.4000015258789062
Earth | 5.0

sql

SELECT CAST('2026-03-01' AS TIMESTAMP) - INTERVAL '1' MONTH;

2026-02-01 00:00:00+00:00

Signatures

date - date → interval
date - interval → timestamp
date - timestamp → interval
decimal - decimal → decimal
decimal - float → float
decimal - integer → decimal
float - decimal → float
float - float → float
float - integer → float
integer - decimal → decimal
integer - float → float
integer - integer → integer
interval - date → timestamp
interval - interval → interval
interval - timestamp → timestamp
timestamp - date → interval
timestamp - interval → timestamp
timestamp - timestamp → interval

Notes

Unlike addition, subtraction is not symmetric across types: a timestamp minus an interval is a timestamp, but an interval minus a timestamp is not accepted.