Date fun

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Date fun

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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October 2, 2017 at 10:57 pm

#333134

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Date fun

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Stewart "Arturius" Campbell SSC Guru Points: 72496 More actions · Answer 1

Nice question, thanks Steve, have used similar methods to calculate e.g. first and last days of the month, etc

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Carlo Romagnano SSC-Insane Points: 22597 More actions · Answer 2

Carlo Romagnano

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October 3, 2017 at 12:45 am

#1961992

Ahahaha, good fun!

HappyGeek SSCoach Points: 18726 More actions · Answer 3

HappyGeek

SSCoach

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October 3, 2017 at 2:34 am

#1962012

Nice one thanks Steve.

...

Nick Ryan SSCrazy Points: 2237 More actions · Answer 4

Ouch my head. I really, really hate the date hacks that are required in MS-SQL for otherwise relatively simple (in concept) date manipulations. I do have cause to use quite a few of them though...

allinadazework SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4506 More actions · Answer 5

allinadazework

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October 3, 2017 at 3:27 am

#1962018

Nice question, thanks.

sipas Hall of Fame Points: 3828 More actions · Answer 6

sipas

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October 3, 2017 at 5:51 am

#1962027

American dates are weird.

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183698 More actions · Answer 7

sipas - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 5:51 AM
American dates are weird.

American dates?

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

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sipas Hall of Fame Points: 3828 More actions · Answer 8

Luis Cazares - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 5:58 AM
sipas - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 5:51 AM
American dates are weird.
American dates?

UK dates are ddmmyyyy (or yyyymmdd) as opposed to mmddyyyy (or yyyyddmm).
This makes it easy (for example) to sort dated files in order by using the file name if it has a yyyymmdd suffix.
NB For the avoidance of doubt, it wasn't a serious comment, I'm sure everyone else thinks UK dates are weird.

Nick Ryan SSCrazy Points: 2237 More actions · Answer 9

Interesting comments about dates... although if you think about it - all dates are weird.

What is important to consider though is that for an international website it is important to always represent dates in a commonly understood and interpreted format. In this case the ISO date format is correct and this is what was shown in the example. If the example used the US (or any other regional specific date format) then it would be incorrect. MS-SQL has clearly defined ways of interpreting dates that are presented in ISO format and dates that are not presented in an ISO format will be handled at the whim of whatever local date format is in operation at the time and this may not be, and often is not, what is expected. Consider 3/11 or 11/3 - is this the 3rd day of the 11th month or the 11th day of the 3rd month?

The issue with US format dates is that the day and month are swapped compared to much of the rest of the world. While neither technically correct or incorrect (actually, dammit, I'm from the UK: it is incorrect and please drive on the correct side of the road as well.. 😉 ) it is interesting in that it often matches how we speak a date rather than how we write a date: do you say "the 1st of March" or "March the 1st" (technically "March, the 1st")? Neither is more wrong or right than the other.

All of this is fine when you consider just the Gregorian calendar - other calendars are available.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003853 More actions · Answer 10

sipas - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 5:51 AM
American dates are weird.

Heh... and we're damned proud of it. 😉

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
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Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003853 More actions · Answer 11

Considering the correct answer, my question would be, what are the Use Cases behind doing such a thing?

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183698 More actions · Answer 12

sipas - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 6:13 AM
Luis Cazares - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 5:58 AM
sipas - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 5:51 AM
American dates are weird.
American dates?
UK dates are ddmmyyyy (or yyyymmdd) as opposed to mmddyyyy (or yyyyddmm).
This makes it easy (for example) to sort dated files in order by using the file name if it has a yyyymmdd suffix.
NB For the avoidance of doubt, it wasn't a serious comment, I'm sure everyone else thinks UK dates are weird.

Actually, UK and most of the world use dd/mm/yyyy, while the US uses mm/dd/yyyy. The format might change by using short names for the months or a different separator. The format used in the question is ISO yyyymmdd and should never be interpreted as something different.
American dates are indeed the worst way to write a date, but there was no such example in the question.
So yeah, people from the US don't know how to write dates properly and people from the UK don't drive on the right side of the road (pun intended).😀

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

sipas Hall of Fame Points: 3828 More actions · Answer 13

OK, I am even thicker (US dumber) than I thought! I didn't look at the question properly, worked out the difference between the dates as if they were American format (-2), added -2 to January 3rd and got January 1st 22:22 - the correct answer!
It's such a fine line between stupid, and uh... Clever.
Still got a point though, which is the Most Important Thing.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734418 More actions · Answer 14

sipas - Tuesday, October 3, 2017 5:51 AM
American dates are weird.

That's why they weren't in the question 😉