• Yes, you will have a scalar computation versus a datatype conversion - slightly more expensive. This was more for load functions where rounding down to the nearest hour or minute was the goal, or trimming miliseconds (as developers will often ask). Cast/convert date to string is probably still recommended for rounding down to the nearest day. This is more of a pattern to round down to other parts. The cost is realized in CPU at load, and the benefit is realized in post-processing when doing aggregations to the sub-day grain without further scalar computations at report time.