Question

I have a column called “WrkHrs” and the data type is time(hh:mm:ss). I want to sum up the working hours for employees. But since it’s time data type sql server doesn’t let me use like sum(columnname).

How can I sum up the time data type fieled in sql query?

Answer 1

SELECT EmployeeID, minutes_worked = SUM(DATEDIFF(MINUTE, '0:00:00', WrkHrs)) 
FROM dbo.table 
-- WHERE ...
GROUP BY EmployeeID;

You can format it pretty on the front end. Or in T-SQL:

;WITH w(e, mw) AS
(
    SELECT EmployeeID, SUM(DATEDIFF(MINUTE, '0:00:00', WrkHrs)) 
    FROM dbo.table 
    -- WHERE ...
    GROUP BY EmployeeID
)
SELECT EmployeeID = e,
  WrkHrs = RTRIM(mw/60) + ':' + RIGHT('0' + RTRIM(mw%60),2)
  FROM w;

However, you’re using the wrong data type. TIME is used to indicate a point in time, not an interval or duration. Wouldn’t it make sense to store their work hours in two distinct columns, StartTime and EndTime?