Date & float conversion on SQL Server condition - sql

I need help understanding a bit of SQL.
SELECT *
FROM [MyTable]
WHERE CAST((GETDATE()-[MyDate]) as float) >= cast(0 as float) /24/60
AND CAST((GETDATE()-[MyDate]) as float) < cast(499999 as float) /24/60
I pretty much understand that its a date search, what I don't get is the float conversion. Why would you use that? Is that better for performance?
I understand that the first condition is: date higher or the same as 1900/01/01, what I just don't understand is what date is: 499999/24/60 and why is there the magic division?
Thanks for help and explanation.

Converting dates to floats is an old style way of dealing with dates. I think it might go back to more limited date functionality in SQL Server 2000. But it might also be a legacy of folks familiar with dates in Excel (where they are floats).
There is no performance advantage. In fact, such type conversions prevent the use of indexes.
For your two items of code, I think you want:
WHERE MyDate >= CONVERT(DATE, GETDATE()) AND
MyDate < DATEADD(DAY, 499999, '1899-12-30')
The last is arbitrary. A constant value such as:
WHERE MyDate >= CONVERT(DATE, GETDATE()) AND
MyDate < '3000-01-01'
makes more sense. You could use the actual date represented -- '3268-12-11' -- but that would probably confuse anyone reading the code.
EDIT:
On re-reading the question, the logic makes even LESS sense than it originally did. It seems to be something like:
WHERE MyDate < CONVERT(DATE, GETDATE()) AND
MyDate >= DATEADD(MINUTE, -499999, GETDATE())
And that causes an overflow.

Related

SQL Server comparing dates

I have a table with Settlement details and I need a report in SSRS that returns settlement items with settlement date yesterday or older. I know this is trivial but there is something I am doing wrong and would appreciate help
This is for Microsoft SQL Server and basic table for simplification
Select
SETL.SettlementDay as SD,
SETL.Amount as Amount,
SETL.quantity as Q
From
Setlement as SETL
Where
SETL.SettlementDate < getdate()
This doesn't work for me. I expect the output would be settlements with settlement date older or equal to yesterday
Thanks
If you want yesterday or older, then use:
where SETL.SettlementDate < convert(date, getdate())
The conversion to date gets rid of the timestamp on getdate() (despite the name, it has the time as well as the date).
You might find this less confusing if you use current_timestamp (which is part of the SQL standard):
where SETL.SettlementDate < convert(date, current_timestamp)
could you try by using cast
Select
SETL.SettlementDay as SD,
SETL.Amount as Amount,
SETL.quantity as Q
From
Setlement as SETL
Where
cast( SETL.SettlementDate as date) < cast( getdate() as date)

Determining what this Delete Statement does

Not really a sql programmer. It looks to me that its looking for anything where exch_date is today and deleting it. Is that correct?
DELETE FROM dbo.Table where
DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd,0,exch_Date),0) = DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd,0,GETDATE()),0)
One way to validate this is to input it into a select statement. This will help you identify all the rows that will be affected.
Select * from db.table
where DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd,0,exch_Date), 0)
= DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd,0,GETDATE()), 0)
It appears to be doing a whole day (as in no time component) comparison between exch_Date and the current date.
If you are using SQL Server 2008, the best solution by far is to CAST to date, which is still SARGable (can use index)
DELETE db.table
where CAST(exch_Date as Date) = DATEDIFF(dd,0,GETDATE())
The DateAdd to 0 portion is redundant (extraneous) code.
Prior to SQL Server 2008, you are better off for performance reasons to always test a date/time column against a range than to use a function on it resulting in table scan.
DELETE db.table
where exch_Date >= DATEDIFF(dd,0,GETDATE())
and exch_Date < DATEDIFF(dd,0,GETDATE()) +1
That's what it's doing. Here's another way that treats the dates as numbers, instead of working with the date manipulation functions:
DELETE FROM dbo.Table WHERE
CAST( CAST(exch_Date as float) as int ) = CAST( CAST(getdate() as float) as int )
Note: I had originally had this:
DELETE FROM dbo.Table WHERE
CAST( exch_Date as int ) = CAST( getdate() as int )
But as Andriy pointed out in the comments, this will round up to the next noon, rather than simply truncate the date to an integer. By going through the float conversion first, the integer cast behaves as expected. Andriy's solution of subtracting 0.5 also works fine, although I prefer the slightly more long-winded float version, which avoids any potential magic-number confusion down the road.

sql compare datetime today

I hope anyone can translate my abstract query.
I want to select * from TABLE where ( [MYDATETIMEROW] < (TODAY - 3 Days)).
Does I have to Convert, cast or use datepart or anything else?.. im confused.
Are there simple rules? I would'nt have problems to do that with linq but simple sql I learned just hardly.
Thank you and best regards.
In simple terms:
Select * from Table where MyDateTimeRow < dateadd(dd,-3,getdate())
But using getdate() will provide both a date and a time, experience says that this is unlikely to be exactly what you want - you might want to strip the time down and just consider the date portion
Select * From Table where MyDateTimeRow < dateadd(dd, datediff(dd, 0, getdate()) - 3, 0)
You want the DateAdd function to manipulate dates and the GetDate function to get the current date:
SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE [MyDateTimeRow] < DateAdd(dd, -3, GetDate())

Best approach to remove time part of datetime in SQL Server

Which method provides the best performance when removing the time portion from a datetime field in SQL Server?
a) select DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd, 0, getdate()), 0)
or
b) select cast(convert(char(11), getdate(), 113) as datetime)
The second method does send a few more bytes either way but that might not be as important as the speed of the conversion.
Both also appear to be very fast, but there might be a difference in speed when dealing with hundreds-of-thousands or more rows?
Also, is it possible that there are even better methods to get rid of the time portion of a datetime in SQL?
Strictly, method a is the least resource intensive:
a) select DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd, 0, getdate()), 0)
Proven less CPU intensive for the same total duration a million rows by someone with way too much time on their hands: Most efficient way in SQL Server to get a date from date+time?
I saw a similar test elsewhere with similar results too.
I prefer the DATEADD/DATEDIFF because:
varchar is subject to language/dateformat issues
Example: Why is my CASE expression non-deterministic?
float relies on internal storage
it extends to work out first day of month, tomorrow, etc by changing "0" base
Edit, Oct 2011
For SQL Server 2008+, you can CAST to date i.e. CAST(getdate() AS date). Or just use date datatype so no time to remove.
Edit, Jan 2012
A worked example of how flexible this is: Need to calculate by rounded time or date figure in sql server
Edit, May 2012
Do not use this in WHERE clauses and the like without thinking: adding a function or CAST to a column invalidates index usage. See number 2 here Common SQL Programming Mistakes
Now, this does have an example of later SQL Server optimiser versions managing CAST to date correctly, but generally it will be a bad idea ...
Edit, Sep 2018, for datetime2
DECLARE #datetime2value datetime2 = '02180912 11:45' --this is deliberately within datetime2, year 0218
DECLARE #datetime2epoch datetime2 = '19000101'
select DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd, #datetime2epoch, #datetime2value), #datetime2epoch)
In SQL Server 2008, you can use:
CONVERT(DATE, getdate(), 101)
Of-course this is an old thread but to make it complete.
From SQL 2008 you can use DATE datatype so you can simply do:
SELECT CONVERT(DATE,GETDATE())
In SQL Server 2008, there is a DATE datetype (also a TIME datatype).
CAST(GetDate() as DATE)
or
declare #Dt as DATE = GetDate()
SELECT CAST(FLOOR(CAST(getdate() AS FLOAT)) AS DATETIME)
...is not a good solution, per the comments below.
I would delete this answer, but I'll leave it here as a counter-example since I think the commenters' explanation of why it's not a good idea is still useful.
Here's yet another answer, from another duplicate question:
SELECT CAST(CAST(getutcdate() - 0.50000004 AS int) AS datetime)
This magic number method performs slightly faster than the DATEADD method. (It looks like ~10%)
The CPU Time on several rounds of a million records:
DATEADD MAGIC FLOAT
500 453
453 360
375 375
406 360
But note that these numbers are possibly irrelevant because they are already VERY fast. Unless I had record sets of 100,000 or more, I couldn't even get the CPU Time to read above zero.
Considering the fact that DateAdd is meant for this purpose and is more robust, I'd say use DateAdd.
SELECT CAST(CAST(GETDATE() AS DATE) AS DATETIME)
I really like:
[date] = CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), GETDATE(), 120)
The 120 format code will coerce the date into the ISO 8601 standard:
'YYYY-MM-DD' or '2017-01-09'
Super easy to use in dplyr (R) and pandas (Python)!
BEWARE!
Method a) and b) does NOT always have the same output!
select DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd, 0, '2013-12-31 23:59:59.999'), 0)
Output: 2014-01-01 00:00:00.000
select cast(convert(char(11), '2013-12-31 23:59:59.999', 113) as datetime)
Output: 2013-12-31 00:00:00.000
(Tested on MS SQL Server 2005 and 2008 R2)
EDIT: According to Adam's comment, this cannot happen if you read the date value from the table, but it can happen if you provide your date value as a literal (example: as a parameter of a stored procedure called via ADO.NET).
See this question:
How can I truncate a datetime in SQL Server?
Whatever you do, don't use the string method. That's about the worst way you could do it.
Already answered but ill throw this out there too...
this suposedly also preforms well but it works by throwing away the decimal (which stores time) from the float and returning only whole part (which is date)
CAST(
FLOOR( CAST( GETDATE() AS FLOAT ) )
AS DATETIME
)
second time I found this solution... i grabbed this code off
CAST(round(cast(getdate()as real),0,1) AS datetime)
This method does not use string function. Date is basically a real datatype with digits before decimal are fraction of a day.
this I guess will be faster than a lot.
For me the code below is always a winner:
SELECT CONVERT(DATETIME, FLOOR(CONVERT(FLOAT,GETDATE())));
select CONVERT(char(10), GetDate(),126)
Strip time on inserts/updates in the first place. As for on-the-fly conversion, nothing can beat a user-defined function maintanability-wise:
select date_only(dd)
The implementation of date_only can be anything you like - now it's abstracted away and calling code is much much cleaner.
I think you mean
cast(floor(cast(getdate()as float))as datetime)
real is only 32-bits, and could lose some information
This is fastest
cast(cast(getdate()+x-0.5 as int)as datetime)
...though only about 10% faster(about 0.49 microseconds CPU vs. 0.58)
This was recommended, and takes the same time in my test just now:
DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd, 0, getdate()), 0)
In SQL 2008, the SQL CLR function is about 5 times faster than using a SQL function would be, at 1.35 microseconds versus 6.5 microsections, indicating much lower function-call overhead for a SQL CLR function versus a simple SQL UDF.
In SQL 2005, the SQL CLR function is 16 times faster, per my testing, versus this slow function:
create function dateonly ( #dt datetime )
returns datetime
as
begin
return cast(floor(cast(#dt as float))as int)
end
How about select cast(cast my_datetime_field as date) as datetime)? This results in the same date, with the time set to 00:00, but avoids any conversion to text and also avoids any explicit numeric rounding.
I think that if you stick strictly with TSQL that this is the fastest way to truncate the time:
select convert(datetime,convert(int,convert(float,[Modified])))
I found this truncation method to be about 5% faster than the DateAdd method. And this can be easily modified to round to the nearest day like this:
select convert(datetime,ROUND(convert(float,[Modified]),0))
Here I made a function to remove some parts of a datetime for SQL Server. Usage:
First param is the datetime to be stripped off.
Second param is a char:
s: rounds to seconds; removes milliseconds
m: rounds to minutes; removes seconds and milliseconds
h: rounds to hours; removes minutes, seconds and milliseconds.
d: rounds to days; removes hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds.
Returns the new datetime
create function dbo.uf_RoundDateTime(#dt as datetime, #part as char)
returns datetime
as
begin
if CHARINDEX( #part, 'smhd',0) = 0 return #dt;
return cast(
Case #part
when 's' then convert(varchar(19), #dt, 126)
when 'm' then convert(varchar(17), #dt, 126) + '00'
when 'h' then convert(varchar(14), #dt, 126) + '00:00'
when 'd' then convert(varchar(14), #dt, 112)
end as datetime )
end
Just in case anyone is looking in here for a Sybase version since several of the versions above didn't work
CAST(CONVERT(DATE,GETDATE(),103) AS DATETIME)
Tested in I SQL v11 running on Adaptive Server 15.7
If possible, for special things like this, I like to use CLR functions.
In this case:
[Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlFunction]
public static SqlDateTime DateOnly(SqlDateTime input)
{
if (!input.IsNull)
{
SqlDateTime dt = new SqlDateTime(input.Value.Year, input.Value.Month, input.Value.Day, 0, 0, 0);
return dt;
}
else
return SqlDateTime.Null;
}
I, personally, almost always use User Defined functions for this if dealing with SQL Server 2005 (or lower version), however, it should be noted that there are specific drawbacks to using UDF's, especially if applying them to WHERE clauses (see below and the comments on this answer for further details). If using SQL Server 2008 (or higher) - see below.
In fact, for most databases that I create, I add these UDF's in right near the start since I know there's a 99% chance I'm going to need them sooner or later.
I create one for "date only" & "time only" (although the "date only" one is by far the most used of the two).
Here's some links to a variety of date-related UDF's:
Essential SQL Server Date, Time and DateTime Functions
Get Date Only Function
That last link shows no less than 3 different ways to getting the date only part of a datetime field and mentions some pros and cons of each approach.
If using a UDF, it should be noted that you should try to avoid using the UDF as part of a WHERE clause in a query as this will greatly hinder performance of the query. The main reason for this is that using a UDF in a WHERE clause renders that clause as non-sargable, which means that SQL Server can no longer use an index with that clause in order to improve the speed of query execution. With reference to my own usage of UDF's, I'll frequently use the "raw" date column within the WHERE clause, but apply the UDF to the SELECTed column. In this way, the UDF is only applied to the filtered result-set and not every row of the table as part of the filter.
Of course, the absolute best approach for this is to use SQL Server 2008 (or higher) and separate out your dates and times, as the SQL Server database engine is then natively providing the individual date and time components, and can efficiently query these independently without the need for a UDF or other mechanism to extract either the date or time part from a composite datetime type.
I would use:
CAST
(
CAST(YEAR(DATEFIELD) as varchar(4)) + '/' CAST(MM(DATEFIELD) as varchar(2)) + '/' CAST(DD(DATEFIELD) as varchar(2)) as datetime
)
Thus effectively creating a new field from the date field you already have.

MS SQL Date Only Without Time

Question
Hello All,
I've had some confusion for quite some time with essentially flooring a DateTime SQL type using T-SQL. Essentially, I want to take a DateTime value of say 2008-12-1 14:30:12 and make it 2008-12-1 00:00:00. Alot of the queries we run for reports use a date value in the WHERE clause, but I either have a start and end date value of a day and use a BETWEEN, or I find some other method.
Currently I'm using the following:
WHERE CAST(CONVERT(VARCHAR, [tstamp], 102) AS DATETIME) = #dateParam
However, this seems kinda clunky. I was hoping there would be something more simple like
CAST([tstamp] AS DATE)
Some places online recommend using DATEPART() function, but then I end up with something like this:
WHERE DATEPART(year, [tstamp]) = DATEPART(year, #dateParam)
AND DATEPART(month, [tstamp]) = DATEPART(month, #dateParam)
AND DATEPART(day, [tstamp]) = DATEPART(day, #dateParam)
Maybe I'm being overly concerned with something small and if so please let me know. I just want to make sure the stuff I'm writing is as efficient as possible. I want to eliminate any weak links.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
C
Solution
Thanks everyone for the great feedback. A lot of useful information. I'm going to change around our functions to eliminate the function on the left hand side of the operator. Although most of our date columns don't use indexes, it is probably still a better practice.
If you're using SQL Server 2008 it has this built in now, see this in books online
CAST(GETDATE() AS date)
that is very bad for performance, take a look at Only In A Database Can You Get 1000% + Improvement By Changing A Few Lines Of Code
functions on the left side of the operator are bad
here is what you need to do
declare #d datetime
select #d = '2008-12-1 14:30:12'
where tstamp >= dateadd(dd, datediff(dd, 0, #d)+0, 0)
and tstamp < dateadd(dd, datediff(dd, 0, #d)+1, 0)
Run this to see what it does
select dateadd(dd, datediff(dd, 0, getdate())+1, 0)
select dateadd(dd, datediff(dd, 0, getdate())+0, 0)
The Date functions posted by others are the most correct way to handle this.
However, it's funny you mention the term "floor", because there's a little hack that will run somewhat faster:
CAST(FLOOR(CAST(#dateParam AS float)) AS DateTime)
CONVERT(date, GETDATE()) and CONVERT(time, GETDATE()) works in SQL Server 2008. I'm uncertain about 2005.
How about this?
SELECT DATEADD(dd, DATEDIFF(dd,0,GETDATE()), 0)
Yes, T-SQL can feel extremely primitive at times, and it is things like these that often times push me to doing a lot of my logic in my language of choice (such as C#).
However, when you absolutely need to do some of these things in SQL for performance reasons, then your best bet is to create functions to house these "algorithms."
Take a look at this article. He offers up quite a few handy SQL functions along these lines that I think will help you.
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/jeffs/archive/2007/01/02/56079.aspx
Careful here, if you use anything a long the lines of WHERE CAST(CONVERT(VARCHAR, [tstamp], 102) AS DATETIME) = #dateParam it will force a scan on the table and no indexes will be used for that portion.
A much cleaner way of doing this is defining a calculated column
create table #t (
d datetime,
d2 as
cast (datepart(year,d) as varchar(4)) + '-' +
right('0' + cast (datepart(month,d) as varchar(2)),2) + '-' +
right('0' + cast (datepart(day,d) as varchar(2)),2)
)
-- notice a lot of care need to be taken to ensure the format is comparable. (zero padding)
insert #t
values (getdate())
create index idx on #t(d2)
select d2, count(d2) from #t
where d2 between '2008-01-01' and '2009-01-22'
group by d2
-- index seek is used
This way you can directly check the d2 column and an index will be used and you dont have to muck around with conversions.
DATEADD(d, 0, DATEDIFF(d, 0, [tstamp]))
Edit: While this will remove the time portion of your datetime, it will also make the condition non SARGable. If that's important for this query, an indexed view or a between clause is more appropriate.
Alternatively you could use
declare #d datetimeselect
#d = '2008-12-1 14:30:12'
where tstamp
BETWEEN dateadd(dd, datediff(dd, 0, #d)+0, 0)
AND dateadd(dd, datediff(dd, 0, #d)+1, 0)
Here's a query that will return all results within a range of days.
DECLARE #startDate DATETIME
DECLARE #endDate DATETIME
SET #startDate = DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE())
SET #endDate = GETDATE()
SELECT *
FROM table
WHERE dateColumn >= DATEADD(day, DATEDIFF(day, 0, #startDate), 0)
AND dateColumn < DATEADD(day, 1, DATEDIFF(day, 0, #endDate))
FWIW, I've been doing the same thing as you for years
CAST(CONVERT(VARCHAR, [tstamp], 102) AS DATETIME) = #dateParam
Seems to me like this is one of the better ways to strip off time in terms of flexibility, speed and readabily. (sorry). Some UDF functions as suggested can be useful, but UDFs can be slow with larger result sets.
WHERE DATEDIFF(day, tstamp, #dateParam) = 0
This should get you there if you don't care about time.
This is to answer the meta question of comparing the dates of two values when you don't care about the time.