I'm trying to parse certain columns into a date format and have had success doing so, but have run into an error due to inconsistency that lies in the data.
My date columns are currently integers in the form of YYYYMMDD, so I've used the following in the select statement to parse into dates:
CONVERT(datetime, CAST(date_column AS CHAR(8)), 112)
This works as expected, transforming my data into a YYYY-MM-DD format.
I run into the following error though:
Conversion failed when converting date and/or time from character
string.
After looking through the data a bit, it turns out I have some cases of inconsistent data values, such as -1 and 10630 instead of the expected YYYYMMDD value.
Do I just need to add a WHERE statement to only apply CONVERT and CAST to YYYYMMDD fields while filtering out fields with bad data? If so, how would I do this, or is there a better way?
Thanks in advance
Let me assume you are using SQL Server, based on the syntax of your SQL. You shouldn't actually need the 112. 'YYYYMMDD' is the default date format for SQL Server.
In any case, you can use TRY_CONVERT():
TRY_CONVERT(datetime, CAST(date_column AS CHAR(8)), 112)
This returns NULL if the value cannot be converted. You can find the offending values using:
select date_column
from t
where try_convert(datetime, cast(date_column as char(8)) is null and
date_column is not null;
Use Parse() or Try_parse()
select parse('22-JAN-1989' as date)
select parse('04-March-1992' as date)
select parse('03/10/2020' as date)
select parse('07-05-1958' as date)
select parse('Aug 25,2016' as date)
Every example above returns a valid date.
You can also add USING 'en-US' or such if you want a different culture.
If you are getting numeric values, and you know the starting date, use
select IsNull(try_parse('16500' as date),dateadd(d,cast('16500' as int),'1/1/1980'))
Related
I am using SQL Server Management Studio 18 against SQL Server 2016. I have some material that are in batches and those batches have expiration dates that are held as strings, but are basically in the format of 'yearmonthday', e.g. '20210312' for March 3rd, 2021. My goal is to only see material that is expiring after the current date. Whenever I try to CAST the expiration date column AS DATE within the WHERE clause, I get this error:
Conversion failed when converting date and/or time from character string
(or something similar when trying different methods).
So, right now my code looks like this:
SELECT MaterialColumn, BatchColumn, CAST(ExpirationColumn AS DATE)
FROM StockTable
WHERE CAST(ExpirationColumn AS DATE) > CAST(GETDATE() AS DATE)
If I don't do the WHERE clause, I know I can CAST the ExpirationColumn as DATE without issue, but when it's in the WHERE clause, I run into that error. Is there any way I can filter to see only the dates that I want?
You can use try_cast() instead:
SELECT MaterialColumn, BatchColumn, CAST(ExpirationColumn AS DATE)
FROM StockTable
WHERE TRY_CAST(ExpirationColumn AS DATE) > CAST(GETDATE() AS DATE);
You can also find the bad values:
SELECT ExpirationColumn
FROM StockTable
WHERE TRY_CAST(ExpirationColumn AS DATE) IS NULL AND ExpirationColumn IS NOT NULL;
It sounds like you might need to fix some data values.
Honestly, if your dates are all stored in the format yyyyMMdd then there's no need to convert. Instead use a varchar parameter, as (at least) a varchar in the format yyyyMMdd had the same sort order as a date.
As a result you just convert GETDATE to the right format:
WHERE Expiration > CONVERT(varchar(8), GETDATE(), 112)
Of course, this doesn't change my statements in the comment; fix your design, don't stores dates as a string but as a date (and time) data type.
I have dates currently stored as varchar(1000) that are in inconsistent formats. I.e. yyyy-mm-dd and dd-mm-yyyy etc.
What query can I run to clean these up so they are in a consistent format, so I can convert the column datatype from varchar(1000) to date?
Thanks
This could get ugly if you have many different date formats, possibly including invalid data. One option would be to assign a new date column using a CASE expression to choose the correct format mask:
UPDATE yourTable
SET date_col = CASE WHEN date LIKE '[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}'
THEN CONVERT(datetime, date, 105)
WHEN date LIKE '[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}'
THEN CONVERT(datetime, date) END;
You may add conditions to the above CASE expression for other date formats.
This looks easy solution but I can't seem to figure out as to why this is not working for me. I have a column that has data like this:
DateField
----------
12/16/2016
11/06/2016
All I want to do is to convert from varchar into a date column, but I am getting this error:
Conversion failed when converting date and/or time from character string.
Here is my simple query:
select convert (date, DateField) as convertedField
from myTable
Nothing wrong with the two examples you have given. There are some bad dates in your table which cannot be converted to date.
Use TRY_CONVERT function for bad dates it will return NULL
select TRY_Convert(date,DateField)
From myTable
You should always store dates in DATE/DATETIME datatype.
If you want to see the records which cannot be converted to date then
select DateField
From myTable
Where TRY_Convert(date,DateField) IS NULL
If working with a specific date format like mm/dd/yyyy You can specify it in Convert() function like the following
CONVERT(DATETIME,DATAFIELD,101)
If it still is not working, use TRY_CONVERT() to get which rows are throwing this exception:
SELECT *
FROM TBL
WHERE TRY_CONVERT(DATETIME, DATAFIELD, 101) IS NULL
This will return rows that cannot be converted
TRY_CONVERT() will return NULL if conversion failed
Read more about DateTime formats here:
SQL Server CONVERT() Function tutorial
Read TRY_CONVERT MSDN Article
You need to specify the format of date time while formatting. The date in your table is currently in U.S format so you should pass the third argument 101 in your convert function.
SELECT CONVERT(date,[DateField],101) FROM myTable;
Working Fiddle here http://rextester.com/NYKR49788
More info about date time style here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187928.aspx
I have a table that contains date and the format is :'01-16-1989' which is mm-dd-yyyy but I want to insert to another table that has format like this: '1989-01-16' which is yyyy-mm-dd. What function can I use in the insert statement to do this?
insert into des_table
select date from source_table
How to update the second line in order to finish the date format conversion?
You can convert a string from mm-dd-yyyy format to a date using conversion type 110:
select convert(date, [date], 110)
from source_table
You can then convert this back to a string in the yyyy-mm-dd format using code 120:
select convert(varchar(10), convert(date, [date], 110), 121)
You can format date with DATE_FORMAT()
This is one way
SELECT DATE_FORMAT(date, '%Y-%m-%d') FROM source_table;
Source: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_date-format
Unless they are not actually datetime data types, your insert should be golden as it is.
Also, to answer this you should tell us what RDBMS you are using.
If you are using MySQL this should get you covered:
select DATE_FORMAT(current_date,'%y/%m/%d');
On the dates note you should keep all your dates
ISO formated
Since your column is already a DATE you don't need to do any conversions on the insert. If you want it to look a certain way in a specific query result, you can use CONVERT. There are many format options, but again, you don't need to bother with changing how it looks on the insert.
Here are some resources
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187928.aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187928(v=sql.105).aspx
http://www.w3schools.com/sql/func_convert.asp
I currently have dates stored in a general attribute field in the database as a string.
They are all stored in the format DD/MM/YYYY for example 01/01/2000
I am able to convert them them to datetime successfully by using the following in my select statement. For example CONVERT(DATETIME, attribute.field_value, 103) where attribute.field_value contains a date.
The SELECT statement works fine and returns the whole table with them correctly.
I can also return a column with todays date in the same format as follows CAST(getdate() AS datetime)
The problem occurs when I try to compare, now I only want to return everything that is newer than today in pseudo code that would dateNewerThanToday > dateToday
Therefore I have tried
WHERE CONVERT(DATETIME, attribute.field_value, 103) > CAST(getdate() AS datetime)
this gives me the error
Conversion failed when converting datetime from character string.
I have tried a multitude of cast/converts to get it to work. I have also wrapped by select so I am only doing it on dataset with the correct data.
Any help would be super useful! Many thanks in advance!!
A couple of things ..
You do not need to convert to GETDATE() to DATETIME data type as it already returns datetime data type.
Instead of CONVERT(DATETIME, attribute.field_value, 103)
use
CONVERT(DATETIME, attribute.field_value) or CAST(attribute.field_value AS DATETIME)
Add a where clause in your select to get only valid DATETIME values. something like
WHERE ISDATE(attribute.field_value) = 1
This will filter out any values which appears to be a date value but sql server doesnt see them as valid date values.
Important Not
Use appropriate data types. If this column is storing date values why not use the DATE or DATETIME data types.
I ran into this exact problem.
Values from a VARCHAR(50) column returned in the SELECT could be cast as date without issue. However when cast in a comparison in the WHERE clause the error occurred.
Of note, the error only occurred when I had other restrictions in the WHERE clause.
When I added ISDATE() to the WHERE clause, the error no longer occurred.
e.g. Shortened example of what worked:
SELECT CONVERT(DATE, mat.myAttributeColumn), mdct.myDateComparisonColumn
FROM myAttributeTable mat
JOIN myDateComparisonTable mdct ON mdct.key = mat.key
WHERE ISDATE(mat.myAttributeColumn) = 1
and mdct.myDateComparisonColumn < convert(DATE, mat.myAttributeColumn)