How to Find the Difference Between Two Timestamps in SQLite

Problem

You have two columns of the type timestamp and you want to calculate the difference between them.

Example

In the travel table, there are three columns: id, departure, and arrival. You'd like to calculate the difference between the arrival and the departure.

The travel table looks like this:

Solution 1: Difference in Days

SELECT
  id,
  departure,
  arrival,
  JULIANDAY(arrival) - JULIANDAY(departure) AS difference
FROM travel;

The result is:

Discussion

To calculate the difference between the timestamps in SQLite, use the JULIANDAY() function for both timestamps, then subtract one from the other. This way, you get the difference in days. The integer part of the difference is the number of full days, and the decimal part represents a partial day.

The JULIANDAY() function returns the number of days since noon Greenwich Mean Time on November 24, 4714 B.C. You can read more about this function in the documentation.

Solution 2: Difference in Seconds

SELECT
  id,
  departure,
  arrival,
  ROUND((JULIANDAY(arrival) - JULIANDAY(departure)) * 86400) AS difference
FROM travel;

The result is:

Discussion

If you'd like to calculate the difference between the timestamps in seconds, multiply the decimal difference in days by the number of seconds in a day, which equals 24 * 60 * 60 = 86400, or the product of the number of hours in a day, the number of minutes in an hour, and the number of seconds in a minute. Since the decimal parts for difference in days aren't 100% accurate due to rounding errors, you may get a non-zero decimal part. Rounding the result to the nearest integer, using the ROUND() function, fixes the problem.

Similarly, you could calculate the difference in minutes or in hours. Just change * 86400 to * 3600 (minutes) or * 60 (hours).