How to get a date in YYYY-MM-DD format from a TSQL datetime field?

How do I retrieve a date from SQL Server in YYYY-MM-DD format? I need this to work with SQL Server 2000 and up. Is there a simple way to perform this in SQL Server or would it be easier to convert it programmatically after I retrieve the result set?

I've read the CAST and CONVERT on Microsoft Technet, but the format I want isn't listed and changing the date format isn't an option.

24 Answers

SELECT CONVERT(char(10), GetDate(),126) 

Limiting the size of the varchar chops of the hour portion that you don't want.

SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 100) -- mon dd yyyy hh:mmAM SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 101) -- mm/dd/yyyy – 10/02/2008 SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 102) -- yyyy.mm.dd – 2008.10.02 SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 103) -- dd/mm/yyyy SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 104) -- dd.mm.yyyy SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 105) -- dd-mm-yyyy SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 106) -- dd mon yyyy SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 107) -- mon dd, yyyy SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 108) -- hh:mm:ss SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 109) -- mon dd yyyy hh:mm:ss:mmmAM (or PM) SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 110) -- mm-dd-yyyy SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 111) -- yyyy/mm/dd SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 112) -- yyyymmdd SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 113) -- dd mon yyyy hh:mm:ss:mmm SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 114) -- hh:mm:ss:mmm(24h) SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 120) -- yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss(24h) SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 121) -- yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.mmm SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 126) -- yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.mmm 

Starting with SQL Server 2012 (original question is for 2000):

SELECT FORMAT(GetDate(), 'yyyy-MM-dd')

The form you are after is listed in the books online documentation.

(SQL.80).aspx

For example, try the following:

select convert(varchar,getDate(),120) select convert(varchar(10),getDate(),120) 

The convert function with the format specifier 120 will give you the format "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss", so you just have to limit the length to 10 to get only the date part:

convert(varchar(10), theDate, 120) 

However, formatting dates is generally better to do in the presentation layer rather than in the database or business layer. If you return the date formatted from the database, then the client code has to parse it to a date again if it needs to do any calculations on it.

Example in C#:

theDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd") 

For YYYYMMDD try

select convert(varchar,getDate(),112) 

I have only tested on SQLServer2008.

I'm not sure why the simplest way has been ignored/omitted in the answers above:

SELECT FORMAT(GetDate(),'yyyy-MM-dd');--= 2020-01-02 SELECT FORMAT(GetDate(),'dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss');-- = 02 Jan 2020 08:08:08 

I prefer the second one because whichever language you speak, you will understand what date it is!

Also SQL Server always 'understands' it when you send that to your save procedure, regardless of which regional formats are set in the computers - I always use full year (yyyy), month name (MMM) and 24 hour format (capital HH) for hour in my programming.

One other way...

CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(yyyy, @datetime)) + '/' + CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(mm, @datetime)) + '/' + CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(dd, @datetime)) 

For those who would want the time part as well (I did), the following snippet may help

SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 120) -- yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss(24h) SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 121) -- yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.mmm SELECT convert(varchar, getdate(), 126) -- yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.mmm --example -- 2008-10-02T10:52:47.513 

replace(convert(varchar, getdate(), 111), '/','-') 

Will also do trick without "chopping anything off".

In case someone wants to do it the other way around and finds this.

select convert(datetime, '12.09.2014', 104) 

This converts a string in the German date format to a datetime object.

Why 104? See here:

In your cast and convert link, use style 126 thus:

CONVERT (varchar(10), DTvalue, 126)

This truncates the time. Your requirement to have it in yyyy-mm-dd means it must be a string datatype and datetime.

Frankly though, I'd do it on the client unless you have good reasons not to.

If you want to use it as a date instead of a varchar again afterwards, don't forget to convert it back:

select convert(datetime,CONVERT(char(10), GetDate(),126)) 

You may also use. This is by using the new datatype DATE. May not work in all previous versions, but greatly simplified to use in later version.

SELECT CAST(getdate() AS DATE) SELECT LEFT(CAST(getdate() AS DATE), 7) 

SELECT CONVERT(NVARCHAR(20), GETDATE(), 23)

From SQL Server 2008 you can do this: CONVERT(date,getdate())

I would use:

CONVERT(char(10),GETDATE(),126) 

SELECT Code,Description FROM TABLE -- This will Include only date part of 14th March 2010. Any date with date companents will not be considered. WHERE ID= 1 AND FromDate >= CONVERT(DATETIME, '2010-02-14', 126) AND ToDate <= DATEADD(dd, 1, CONVERT(DATETIME, '2010-03-14', 126)) -- This will Include the whole day of 14th March 2010 --WHERE ID= 1 AND FromDate >= CONVERT(DATETIME, '2010-02-14', 126) AND ToDate < DATEADD(dd, 1, CONVERT(DATETIME, '2010-03-14', 126)) 

Seems unnecessary to do any strange things, if you want your date to be seperated by slash. Just escape it with a backslash. Otherwise you will end up with a dot.

SELECT FORMAT(GETDATE(),'yyyy\/MM'); 

Tested on SQL Server 2016

Using a CASE statement for each of the convert / cast functions always works for me:

Please replace tableXXXXY with your table name, and issueDate_dat with the name of your datetime field in that table:

SELECT issueDate_dat, CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(yyyy, issuedate_dat)) AS issueDateYYYY , CASE WHEN (len(CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(mm, issuedate_dat))) < 2) THEN '0' +CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(mm, issuedate_dat)) ELSE CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(mm, issuedate_dat)) END AS issueDateMM , CASE WHEN (len(CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(dd, issuedate_dat))) <2) THEN '0' +CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(dd, issuedate_dat)) ELSE CONVERT(varchar, DATEPART(dd, issuedate_dat)) END AS issueDateDD FROM tableXXXXY 

Hope this was helpful. chagbert.

This solution works for me, simple and effective (with 126 too)

CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX), CAST(GETDATE() as date), 120) 

If your source date format is all messed up, try something along the lines of:

select convert(nvarchar(50),year(a.messedupDate))+'-'+ (case when len(convert(nvarchar(50),month(a.messedupDate)))=1 then '0'+ convert(nvarchar(50),month(a.messedupDate))+'-' else convert(nvarchar(50),month(a.messedupDate)) end)+ (case when len(convert(nvarchar(50),day(a.messedupDate)))=1 then '0'+ convert(nvarchar(50),day(a.messedupDate))+'-' else convert(nvarchar(50),day(a.messedupDate)) end) from messytable a 

 IFormatProvider culture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("fr-FR", true); cmdGetPaymentStatement.Parameters.AddWithValue("@pStartDate", DateTime.Parse("22/12/2017", culture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal)).IsNullable = true; 

As string processing is expensive, and FORMAT more so, I am surprised that Asher/Aaron Dietz response is not higher, if not top; the question is seeking ISO 8601 date, and isn't specifically requesting it as a string type.

The most efficient method would be any of these (I've included the answer Asher/Aaron Dietz have already suggested for completeness):

All versions

select cast(getdate() as date) select convert(date, getdate()) 

2008 and higher

select convert(date, current_timestamp) 

ANSI SQL equivalent 2008 and higher

select cast(current_timestamp as date) 

References: