How to Get Specific Date Formats in SQL Server?

How to Obtain a Specific Date Format in SQL Server

When working with dates in SQL Server, it's essential to understand how date formats are handled and transformed. This query:

SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), GETDATE(), 105)

returns the current date in the [DD-MM-YYYY] format (e.g., 01-10-2023). While this is convenient for display purposes, it raises the question of how to store and retrieve dates in a specific format within the SQL Server DATETIME datatype.

Handling DATETIME Datatypes

Unlike VARCHAR, which can store a formatted date string, DATETIME stores dates as 8-byte integers, lacking an explicit format. Consequently, if you require a specific format for a DATETIME field, you must employ the CONVERT function to convert it momentarily to a VARCHAR.

Conversion Options

When converting a DATETIME to a VARCHAR, you can specify a format identifier to obtain the desired format. Here are some examples:

Format Identifier	Output Format
105	[DD-MM-YYYY]
108	[YYYY-MM-DD]
120	[MM/DD/YYYY]

For instance, the following query:

SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), GETDATE(), 120)

will return the current date in the [MM/DD/YYYY] format (e.g., 10-01-2023).

Note on Data Insertion

When inserting a date in a VARCHAR format into a DATETIME field, it's crucial to ensure the format is consistent and unambiguous. Safe formats include:

• yyyyMMdd (e.g., 20231001)
• yyyy-MM-ddThh:mi:ss.mmm (e.g., 2023-10-01T12:00:00.000)

This ensures that SQL Server can interpret the date correctly, regardless of regional settings.

The above is the detailed content of How to Get Specific Date Formats in SQL Server?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!