## Syntax
```mermaid
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flowchart LR
Start((START)) --> CEIL[CEIL]:::quoted
CEIL --> End((END))
```
## Purpose
The `CEIL` SQL function rounds the input to the largest following integer. In case a number of decimals is defined, in which case it rounds to the largest integer number to the indicated number of decimals or date with the number of positions. See also: [[FLOOR]], [[TRUNC]] and [[ROUND]].
Parameters:
- Input: a number or datetime to retrieve ceiling value for.
- Decimals (optional): a number to specify how many decimals it may ceil to in case of a number. In case of a datetime, it reflects the number of time positions, ranging from -2 for years to 2 for minutes.
Returns: the ceiling of the input.
The time positions are:
- 2: minute
- 1: hour
- 0: day
- -1: month
- -2: year
## Examples
The following example retrieves the ceiling of -15.32:
```sql
select ceil(-15.32)
--------
-15
```
The following example retrieves the ceiling of -15.32 with 1 positions:
```sql
select ceil(-15.32, 1)
--------
-15.3
```
The following example retrieves the ceiling of -15.32 with -1 positions:
```sql
select ceil(-15.32, -1)
--------
-10
```
The following example retrieves the ceiling of the date 2026-05-19 13:20:34:
```sql
select to_char(ceil(to_date('20260519132034', 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS')), 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS')
----------------
20260520000000
```
The following example retrieves the ceiling of the date 2026-05-19 13:20:34 with 1 time positions:
```sql
select to_char(ceil(to_date('20260519132034', 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS'), 1), 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS')
----------------
20260519140000
```