Question

Given a table like the following:

sqlite> CREATE TABLE movies( start_time int );
sqlite> INSERT INTO movies( start_time ) VALUES( 5 );
sqlite> INSERT INTO movies( start_time ) VALUES( 10 );
sqlite> INSERT INTO movies( start_time ) VALUES( 15 );
sqlite> INSERT INTO movies( start_time ) VALUES( 20 );
sqlite> INSERT INTO movies( start_time ) VALUES( 25 );
sqlite> INSERT INTO movies( start_time ) VALUES( 30 );
sqlite> INSERT INTO movies( start_time ) VALUES( 35 );
sqlite> 

Assume I have two time points, a start time of 17 and an end time of 34. I would like a query that returns the rows with the following values: 15, 20, 25, 30.

What’s throwing me is the 15… I know that 17 is contained in the file associated with 15, but I don’t want the other rows that are less than the start time (e.g. the 10 and the 5).

Answer 1

The question is a little underspecified in my opinion (and working without ids isn’t realistic). That said, for your particular example table the following works:

select * from movies
where
  start_time > 17 and start_time < 34
  or start_time in (select max(start_time) from movies
                    where start_time <= 17)