# HOUR

The HOUR function returns the hour part of a value.

The argument must be a time, timestamp, or a valid character string representation of a time or timestamp that is not a CLOB, LONG VARCHAR, or XML value. The result of the function is a large integer. If the argument can be null, the result can be null; if the argument is null, the result is the null value.

The other rules depend on the data type of the argument specified:

- If the argument is a date, timestamp, or valid string representation of a date or timestamp: The result is the hour part of the value, which is an integer between 0 and 24.
- If the argument is a time duration or timestamp duration: The result is the hour part of the value, which is an integer between -99 and 99. A nonzero result has the same sign as the argument.

#### Syntax

    HOUR ( expression )

Select all the classes that start in the afternoon from a table called TABLE1.

    SELECT * FROM TABLE1
    WHERE HOUR(STARTING) BETWEEN 12 AND 17

Parent topic: Built-in functions