How to compare two dates to find time difference in SQL Server 2005, date manipulation

Question

I have two columns:

job_start                         job_end
2011-11-02 12:20:37.247           2011-11-02 13:35:14.613

How would it be possible using T-SQL to find the raw amount of time that has passed between when the job started and when the job ended?

I tried this:

select    (job_end - job_start) from tableA

but ended up with this:

1900-01-01 01:14:37.367

Answer 1

Take a look at the DateDiff() function.

-- Syntax
-- DATEDIFF ( datepart , startdate , enddate )

-- Example usage
SELECT DATEDIFF(DAY, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS DayDiff
SELECT DATEDIFF(MINUTE, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS MinuteDiff
SELECT DATEDIFF(SECOND, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS SecondDiff
SELECT DATEDIFF(WEEK, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS WeekDiff
SELECT DATEDIFF(HOUR, GETDATE(), GETDATE() + 1) AS HourDiff
...

You can see it in action / play with it here