SQL Server Date Functions In Action

There are three hot topics around SQL Server and dates: date functions, the release dates for different SQL Server versions and editions, and how to handle date formats from end users. Here are some articles to help you get started fast with each of those:

SQL Server Date Functions

These functions are the bread and butter of your stored procedures and views:

• SQL Server Date and Time Functions - like DATEPART, DATEADD and DATEDIFF, which calculate the differences between dates and times. These functions work with SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008, and 2008R2.
• MDX Date Functions and MDX Time Functions - learn how to work with dates and date dimensions in SQL Server Analysis Services for LastPeriods, MTD, PeriodsToDate, QTD, WTD and YTD.

SQL Server Service Pack and Hotfix Release Dates

Want to know when a new version is coming out, or when support expires for an older version of SQL Server?

• SQL Server Release Date Calendar - release dates for SQL Server 2008, 2005, and 2000, including hotfixes and service packs.
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Release Date - Jason Strate covers the new features and release information about SQL Server 2008 R2. If you're looking for the SQL Server 2010 release date, that's actually going to be called SQL Server 2008 R2.

SQL Date Format Handling

SQL Server can do more than just replace characters in a string: it can also uppercase and lowercase strings, calculate string lengths, and more.

• SQL Server Date and Time Datatypes - explains the datetime field format and how to convert between MM-DD-YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD and other formats.
• Custom SQL Server Date Function Scripts - scripts to add business days to a date, identify business dates, calculate the number of seconds in a day, and more.

SQLServerPedia Editors' Favorite Articles on Date Features

Our editors recommend these links:

• Change Varchar Column to Datetime Field - Learn how to alter columns from character to date-time formats.
• New Date and Time Datatypes in SQL Server 2008 - explains the new DATE, TIME, and DATETIME2 fields in SQL Server 2008. These give SQL Server similar time field handling that Oracle has.
• SQL Server Date Correlation Optimization - a rarely implemented option, this allows SQL Server to handle statistics differently for tables involving datetime fields.