MS SQL : Get average time between dates

SQL can be run on tables in databases. It can't be run on array variables.

Do you want some code that will get the average out of an date array?

If you want to put them into a table, are all dates consecutive?

In that case the SQL would something like this:

SELECT AVG(DATEDIFF(day,tblDates.DateField, tblPreviousDate.PreviousDateField))
FROM
tblDates,
(SELECT MAX(DateField) As PreviousDateField FROM tblDates WHERE DateField < tblDates.DateField) tblPreviousDate

Sorry  nmcdermaid

I don't know what I was thinking by talking about an array. I have a Access DB with one date field per record, such as would exist in a log of phone contacts. I need an SQL to get an average numer of days between calls to a certain contact, each contact having a unique ID number. The dates that the calls were made would be consecutive.

Don't worry I'm still on the case....


N

Can you post the table name, and the date and contact field names? I'll give you the SQL you need.

Table name: accounts
Date field: ActivDate
Customer ID: Customerid

Much appreciate the attention to this issue.

I increased the points by 50.

It would appear to be a simple thing to do with Datediff, but DateDiff would require two dates to calculate, and there is but one date field in the table. The whole thing could of course be done programmatically, but with considerably more code.

You use the DMax function to retreive the previous date in the same record.... like so:


SELECT
DMax("[ActivDate]","accounts","[ActivDate] < #" & Format([ActivDate],"mm/dd/yyyy") & "# AND Customerid= '" & [Customerid] & "'") AS PreviousDate,
accounts.CallerID,
DateDiff("d",DMax("[ActivDate]","accounts","[ActivDate] < #" & Format([ActivDate],"mm/dd/yyyy") & "#"),[ActivDate]) AS CallInterval
FROM accounts;

This query retreives:
PreviousDate: not required... only there for illustration
CallerID
CallInterval

For each record. Note that this part of the expression:  ~ Format([ActivDate],"mm/dd/yyyy") ~ was required to convert the date format to US style..... it should not be required but it was!!...  you may find that you don't need it, you can just use ActivDate


Once you have this query workingm save it as a query (Called say qryCallInterval)

Then run this query to get the average interval



SELECT CallerID, AVG(CallInterval)
FROM qryCallInterval


If you want to filter on dates, just include ActivDate in all queries and filter on it in a where clause.

This is tremendous. I had long ago given up on this. Thank you!!

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