Date Formats In SQL SERVER.

In this post I will try to explain how to convert date in required format.

As we know by default (U.S. English) Sql Server shows dates in mdy.
i.e.
2008-11-22 14:02:12.513
OR
11/22/2008 2:02:00 PM
And so many times you wants the date in dd/mm/yy or dd Mon yyyy or any other format you want.

The function used by sql server to convert the dates in required format is CONVERT. Which I personaly find more easy to use compare to to_date used by Oracle or other fuctions used by other DBMS.

Syntax for the CONVERT is
CONVERT ( data_type [ ( length ) ] , expression [ , style ] )
Where data_type can be either string datatype (char/ varchar) or datetime.
And Style in nothing but numbers in 1st 2 columns in following table .




1. Now for example If I want the date in "mon dd yyyy"
I will choose the style as 100 (from the above table)

SELECT CONVERT( varchar(50), date_column, 100)
FROM table_name
go;

e.g.
SELECT CONVERT(varchar(50), GETDATE(), 100)
GO
/* output
Nov 22 2008 2:21PM
*/
2. Or if I want mm/dd/yyyy I will select style 101

SELECT CONVERT(varchar(50), GETDATE(), 101)
GO
/* output
11/22/2008
*/

Now if instead of 2008 if I want only 08 I will select style from 1st column instead of column 2 which is style 1

SELECT CONVERT(varchar(50), GETDATE(), 1)
GO
/* output
11/22/08
*/
So if you want the century part in year (2008, 2009)select style from column 2 (100, 101, 102) or if you want only 2 digits of year (08, 09) select style from 1st column (1, 2, 3).

For more on CONVERT see
CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL) Books Online


- Mangal Pardeshi.