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SQL Server Help: Using Microsoft's Transact SQL DatePart function

Getting the current date (and time) in SQL Server's SQL is possible by using the GetDate function. This can be used to show the current date:

SELECT GetDate() AS 'CurrentDate'

The GetDate function can also be used to assign the current date to a datetime variable, as shown in the following example:

DECLARE @TodaysDate DATETIME
SELECT @TodaysDate = GetDate()
SELECT 'Today''s date is ' + convert(varchar(20), @TodaysDate)

DatePart

The GetDate function returns the current entire date and time. To just retrieve the year, month, week or time period it is possible to use the DatePart function, passing in the date variable as a parameter (the date can also come from a database datetime or smalldatetime field.

The DatePart function takes two arguments, a date part, plus a date variable (which can be either a datetime or smalldatetime). The first argument, the date part, can be one of the following abbreviations:

yy, yyyy

Year

qq, q

Quarter

mm, m

Month

dy, y

DayOfYear

dd, d

Day

wk, ww

Week

hh

Hour

mi, n

Minute

ss

Second

ms

Millisecond

The date part does not need to be enclosed in quotes.

In the example below, the SQL statement is used to find orders where the ShippedDate year was 2008:

SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE DATEPART(yy, ShippedDate) = 2008

Note that Transact SQL has a few shortcuts that can be used instead of DatePart:

• Day(@DateVariable) is the equivalent of DatePart(dd, @DateVariable)
• Month(@DateVariable) is the equivalent of DatePart(mm, @DateVariable)
• Year(@DateVariable) is the equivalent of DatePart(yy, @DateVariable)

Useful Links

• How to calculate the difference between two dates in Transact SQL.

• The SQL Documentation Tool automatically builds technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server databases, saving you time and money. A trial version is available for download.

• The VB Documentation Tool can automatically document your Visual Basic 6.0 applications and associated SQL Server/Microsoft Access databases. A .NET Documentation Tool for the .NET Framework is also available.

Useful Development Tools

SQL Documentation Tool

The SQL Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 databases. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced. The SQL Documentation Tool documents SQL Server Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Table Relationships and Dependencies.

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.NET Documentation Tool

Automatically creates technical documentation for .NET Framework Windows and ASP.NET applications written in C# or VB.NET and SQL Server 7/2000/2005 or Microsoft Access databases associated with the application. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats.

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VB Documentation Tool

The VB Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 projects. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced.

View Sample Output (HTML Help format).     View Sample Output (HTML Format).     Download Trial Version (1Mb ZIP file).

Indexing Service Companion

The Indexing Service Companion is a Windows application that extends the functionality of the Microsoft Windows Indexing Service so that it is able to index content from remote websites and also from ODBC databases. As such it can be used as a low cost alternative to Sharepoint Portal Search Services.

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The Website Utility

The Website Utility examines websites for errors and areas that need to be optimised for search engines by using a built in web crawling engine. Errors checked for include broken or moved hyperlinks, missing page titles and missing meta tags. It also generates HTML for use in creating website site maps (table of contents pages - like this one), and is able to create both client-side JavaScript Search Engines and server-side ASP Search Engines for a website.

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PHP Documentation Tool™

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