How Can I Format Datetime Values in SQL Server for Display and Storage?

Formatting Datetime Values in SQL Server

When working with date and time data in SQL Server, it's often necessary to format the values into a specific format for display or storage purposes. One common format is the [DD-MM-YYYY] format, which is easily achieved using the CONVERT function.

Consider the following query:

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

This query will return the current date in the [DD-MM-YYYY] format as a VARCHAR data type. However, if you need the same format stored as a DATETIME data type, the process is slightly different.

In SQL Server, DATETIME values are stored as two 4-byte integers and do not have a specific formatting applied to them. To obtain the desired format, you need to explicitly convert the DATETIME value to a VARCHAR using the CONVERT function with the appropriate format identifier specified.

For example, to store the current date and time in the DATETIME data type in the [DD-MM-YYYY] format, you could use the following query:

INSERT INTO MyTable (DateField) VALUES (CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), GETDATE(), 105))

It's important to note that if you are converting a VARCHAR representation of a date and time back into a DATETIME field, you should ensure that the format passed to SQL is unambiguous. Safe formats include:

• yyyyMMdd
• yyyy-MM-ddThh:mi:ss.mmm

By following these guidelines, you can easily format date and time values in SQL Server to meet your specific requirements.

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