QUARTER Function

The QUARTER function returns an integer in the range 1 through 4 that corresponds to the quarter of the calendar year that includes its DATE or DATETIME argument.

For example, any date in January, February, or March returns the integer 1.

The argument must be an expression that evaluates to a DATE or DATETIME data type.

Examples of QUARTER function expressions

The following function expression returns 3, because August is in the third quarter of the year.

QUARTER('2014-08-25')

The following example returns a number that can range from 1 through 4 to indicate the quarter when the order was placed:

SELECT order_num, QUARTER(order_date) FROM orders;

The following query includes QUARTER function expressions whose arguments are the order_date column and the CURRENT operator. The WHERE clause restricts the result set to qualifying rows with order_date values in quarters earlier in the current year than the current quarter:

SELECT * FROM orders 
   WHERE (QUARTER(order_date) < QUARTER(CURRENT)) 
          AND YEAR(order_date) = YEAR(CURRENT);

During the first quarter, however, this query returns no rows, because there can be no data from a quarter with a value less than the current quarter. That is, there is no quarter of value zero.