date/time arithmetic

Is it possible to do date arithmetic with date hours and minutes and express the results in hours and minutes?

I need to find the number of hours and minutes between two times.

I can do this, but the result is expressed as a decimal: select (to_date('01-jan-95 12:20', 'dd-mon-yy hh24:mi'))

      -(to_date('01-jan-95 12:00', 'dd-mon-yy hh24:mi'))  from dual;

(TO_DATE('01-JAN-9512:00','DD-MON-YYHH24:MI'))-(TO_DATE('01-JAN-9511:20','DD-MON

                                                                      .027777778

I can do this to get the number of minutes

select (to_number(to_char(stop_time, 'hh24'))

• to_number(to_char(start_time, 'hh24')))
  • 60 + to_number(to_char(trunc(stop_time, 'mi'),'mi'))
• to_number(to_char(trunc(start_time,'mi'),'mi')) from <table_name>;

and then reformat the result myself to print as hours and minutes, but I'm hoping there is an easier way.

TIA Received on Sun Jun 25 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST