Formatting Dates and Times: The SQL Dialect Divide

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Formatting Dates and Times: The SQL Dialect Divide

dbakevlar

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July 11, 2025 at 5:00 am

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Formatting Dates and Times: The SQL Dialect Divide

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call.copse SSCoach Points: 18212 More actions · Answer 1

"Mastering date/time conversions may not feel glamorous, but it’s one of the clearest signs of a seasoned engineer."

Truth.

richardd Hall of Fame Points: 3983 More actions · Answer 2

SQL Server also offers TRY_PARSE, PARSE, TRY_CAST, and TRY_CONVERT. For example:

SELECT PARSE('01/07/2025' AS date USING 'en-US'); -- 7th January
SELECT PARSE('01/07/2025' AS date USING 'en-GB'); -- 1st July

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004646 More actions · Answer 3

Just a bit of a sidebar... avoid using FORMAT except for maybe 1 row displays. Performance of FORMAT is absolutely horrible even compared to relatively complex CONVERTs. Here's an article on that subject with code to prove it to yourself.

https://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/how-to-format-dates-in-sql-server-hint-dont-use-format

--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)