Rune Bivrin (3/8/2010)
Good question, but which alternative is correct depends on how you define platform. If you define "platform" as "versions of SQL Server", then CONVERT works in every version whereas CAST was introduced in 7.0 (IIRC - could've been 2000).
Well, if you define "black" as "white", you can prove anything. The standard definition of platform is independent of versions of specific platforms. I think it's quite ironic that you're criticizing a question that compares an ANSI standard function to a vendor-specific function by relying on a non-standard definition.