How do I convert string date values from mmddyy to mm/dd/yyyy?

  • Hi friends,

    I have date in the format of mmddyy but will like to convert this to date field in the format of mm/dd/yyyy.

    Example:

    022500 to be converted to 02/25/2000.

    The other caveat is that the date value has a data type of nvarchar.

    Thanks in advance for your help.

  • Actually the only caveat is that you store dates as strings. When you store the dates as datetime you can specify the exact style that should be used in the select statement. For example:

    declare @dt datetime

    set @dt = getdate()

    select convert(char(10),@dt,103) as EurDate, convert(char(10), @dt, 101) as USADate

    Since you stored it as nvarchar, you need to use string manipulation functions such as substring, left and right. Here is one way of doing so:

    declare @dt nvarchar(6)

    set @dt = '022500'

    select (left(@dt,2) + '/' + substring(@dt,3,2) + '/' + case when cast(right(@dt,2) as int) >= 70 then '19' else '20' end + right(@dt,2))

    Adi

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  • Here is another way of doing this.

    declare @dt nvarchar(6)

    set @dt = '022500'

    select stuff(stuff(@dt, 3, 0, '/'), 6, 0, '/' + case when cast(right(@dt,2) as int) >= 70 then '19' else '20' end)

    The biggest take away from this is that you should ALWAYS use the datetime datatype for datetime values. Using a varchar for dates just doesn't make sense. You don't store numbers in a varchar, I don't know why so many people store dates in a varchar.

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  • thanks alot Adi.

    That worked.

  • Sean Lange (4/2/2013)


    The biggest take away from this is that you should ALWAYS use the datetime datatype for datetime values. Using a varchar for dates just doesn't make sense. You don't store numbers in a varchar, I don't know why so many people store dates in a varchar.

    That's true when STORING a date after it's been validated. But there have been many times when I had "dates" as input from a spreadsheet import or a form post that are strings. When using a "date" in a parameter, unless the source is a datetime datatyped column I set the parameter datatype to varchar or nvarchar. I really don't trust my inputs so I run the alleged "date" through a validator function that will reject non-dates and convert those that pass to whatever datetime datatype I need. This keeps non-date "dates" from causing run time errors.

    Here's a date validation procedure I use. I wish I could turn it into a TVF, but the procedure depends on TRY...CATCH and that won't work. This is the surest way I've found to validate dates: by trying to convert them to a date datatype and rejecting those "dates" that won't convert. Depending on the desired date format (DMY vs YMD for example) a particular date might pass or fail this test while ISDATE might return true and give a false positive. In this procedure I'm using SMALLDATETIME as my conversion type and that can be changed to whatever datatype is required.

    CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[IsValidDate]

    @sDate VARCHAR(50)

    ,@sDateFormat CHAR(3) = 'DMY' -- MDY, DMY, YMD, YDM, MYD, DYM

    AS

    BEGIN

    SET NOCOUNT ON

    SET DATEFORMAT @sDateFormat

    DECLARE

    @dStdDate SMALLDATETIME

    ,@dUMCDate DATETIMEOFFSET

    ,@bIsValidUMCDate BIT

    ,@bIsValidDate BIT

    SET @dStdDate = NULL

    SET @dUMCDate = NULL

    /* Check to see if this is a valid UMC date */

    IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#CheckUMCDate') IS NOT NULL

    DROP TABLE #CheckUMCDate

    CREATE TABLE #CheckUMCDate (

    [ID] INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,

    [InputDate] VARCHAR(50) NULL,

    [ConvertedDate] VARCHAR(50) NULL,

    [IsValidUMCDate] BIT NULL

    PRIMARY KEY (ID))

    BEGIN TRY

    INSERT INTO #CheckUMCDate

    EXEC dbo.IsValidUMCDate @sDate

    END TRY

    BEGIN CATCH

    INSERT INTO #CheckUMCDate

    SELECT

    @sDate AS InputDate

    ,NULL ConvertedDate

    ,0 AS IsValidUMCDate

    END CATCH

    SELECT

    @dUMCDate = ConvertedDate

    ,@bIsValidUMCDate = IsValidUMCDate

    FROM

    #CheckUMCDate

    /* Check using regular SMALLDATETIME datatype */

    BEGIN TRY

    SET @dStdDate = CONVERT(SMALLDATETIME,@sDate)

    SET @bIsValidDate = 1

    END TRY

    BEGIN CATCH

    SET @bIsValidDate = 0

    SET @dStdDate = NULL

    END CATCH

    SELECT

    @sDate AS InputDate

    ,@dStdDate AS StdDate

    ,@bIsValidDate AS IsValidDate

    ,@dUMCDate AS UMCDate

    ,@bIsValidUMCDate AS IsValidUMCDate

    /*

    EXAMPLES:

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '01-07-2001' -- Valid date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '1/7/2001' -- Valid date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '07-01-2001' -- Valid date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '7/1/2001' -- Valid date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '29-12-2013','DMY' -- Valid date in DMY format

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '29-12-2013','MDY' -- Invalid date in MDY format

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '32-12-2013' -- ERROR: Date out of range

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '29-02-2013' -- ERROR: Not a leap year

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate 'xyz' -- ERROR: Invalid date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '1234' -- Invalid std date/valid umc date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '2013-01-08 15:44:12' -- Valid date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '2013-01-08 15:44:12.000' -- Valid date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '2013-01-08 15:44:12.208' -- Valid date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '2013-01-08 15:44:12.2081606' -- Invalid std date/valid umc date

    EXEC dbo.IsValidDate '2013-01-08 15:44:12.2081606 +05:30' -- Invalid std date/valid umc date

    */

    END

     

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