john.arnott (2/15/2011)
Jamie Longstreet-481950 (2/15/2011)
I prefer something I can rely on to work for all cases with dates... my favorite isCONVERT(varchar(8),getdate(),112)='20110215'
because it is easy to remember and there are not special characters and it is always numeric. Not so good if I need a time, but for many processes, (auditing aside) there is no need to check time.
Looks familiar... I use format 112 a lot, too, but generally with char(8) rather than varchar(8). Is there an advantage to use varchar() that I'm missing? Or is it just one of those "depends" things?
varchar(8) is not only unnecessary, but it requires extra overhead (all var data types do) to maintain it's flexibility between 1-8 "spaces". (Space is a poor word choice on my part, but I'm too tired to remember the proper word here).
Stick with char(8) since your "dates" will never be less or more. In the long run, it could save you some performance and space problems.