How to Effectively Manage Date Formats in SQL Server?

Managing Date Formats in SQL Server

When working with dates in SQL Server, it's important to consider the appropriate data type and format to avoid errors.

Creating a "Date" Data Type Column

To create a column with the "Date" data type, the following syntax is correct:

CREATE TABLE Orders (
  Order_ID INT PRIMARY KEY,
  Book_name VARCHAR(100),
  ISBN VARCHAR(100),
  Customer_ID INT REFERENCES Customer,
  Order_date DATE
);

However, the provided code attempts to use the "date" keyword as a data type, which is incorrect.

Interpreting Literal Dates

Literal dates, such as '02-08-2015', are interpreted according to the system's culture settings. This can lead to unexpected results if the format doesn't match the expected one (e.g., MM-DD-YYYY instead of DD-MM-YYYY).

Specifying Dates in a Culture-Independent Format

To avoid interpretation errors, it's recommended to use culture-independent formats for dates. The following options are available:

• Universal format: 20150730 (30th July 2015)
• ODBC format: {d'2015-07-30'}
• ISO 8601: '2015-07-30T00:00:00'

Querying Dates Before a Specified Date

To find dates before a specific date, such as 2nd August 2015, the following query can be used:

SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE Order_date < '2015-08-02';

This query utilizes the culture-independent ISO 8601 format for the comparison.

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