How to split dash-separated values in SQL Server - sql

Question

I have a date saved in an nvarchar type and I want to split the day, month and year into separate nvarchar variables (that means three variables). The date looks as follows: exposure_date ='2018-12-04' and the format is yyyy-dd-mm
any help please?
My whole project is stuck on this.

Answer 1

The "correct" answer here is to fix your datatype. When storing data always choose an appropriate data type for the data you're storing. For a date (with no time part) then the correct datatype is date. if you're storing numerical data, then use a numerical datatype, such as int or decimal. (n)varchar is not a one size fits all datatype and using it to store data that has a data type designed for it is almost always a bad choice. I'm storing the data as an (n)varchar because I need it in a specific format is never an excuse; have your presentation layer handle to display format, not your RDBMS.
The first step, therefore would be to change your string representation yyyy-dd-MM of a date to the ISO format yyyyMMdd by doing:
UPDATE YourTable
SET exposure_date = LEFT(exposure_date,4) + RIGHT(exposure_date,2) + SUBSTRING(exposure_date,6,2);
Now you have a unambiguous representation, you can change the data type of your column without concerns of incorrect implicit casts or error:
ALTER YourTable ALTER COLUMN exposure_date date;
Then, finally, you can treat your data as what it is, a date, and use the DATEPART function:
SELECT DATEPART(YEAR,exposure_date) AS Exposure_Year,
DATEPART(MONTH,exposure_date) AS Exposure_Month,
DATEPART(DAY,exposure_date) AS Exposure_Day
FROM YourTable;

Answer 2

You can also try the following
Declare #myDate date
select #myDate= Cast(substring('2011-29-12', 1, 4)
+ '-' + substring('2011-29-12', 9, 2)
+ '-' + substring('2011-29-12', 6, 2)
as Date) --YYYY-MM-DD
Select #myDate as DateTime,
datename(day,#myDate) as Date,
month(#myDate) as Month,
datename(year,#myDate) as Year,
Datename(weekday,#myDate) as DayName
The output is as shown below
DateTime Date Month Year DayName
--------------------------------------------
2011-29-12 29 12 2011 Thursday
You can find the live demo here

Answer 3

You can try below -
select concat(cast(year(cast('2018-12-04' as date)) as varchar(4)),'-',
cast(month(cast('2018-12-04' as date)) as varchar(2)), '-',
cast(day(cast('2018-12-04' as date)) as varchar(2)))
from tablename

Answer 4

If you have fixed format, then you could use this simple query with substring method:
select substring(dt, 1, 4) + '-' +
substring(dt, 9, 2) + '-' +
substring(dt, 6, 2) [YYYY-MM-DD]
from (values ('2018-31-12')) tbl(dt)

Answer 5

Let's go directly to the main issue, which is you are using the wrong datatype to store dates, you should store them as DATE, the datatypes are there for a reason and you need to choose a proper one for your column.
So, you need to ALTER your table and change the column datatype to DATE instead of NVARCHAR datatype.
ALTER <Table Name Here>
ALTER COLUMN <Column Name Here> DATE;
Then all things will easy, you just run the following query to get the desired output
SELECT YEAR(<Column Name Here>) TheYear,
MONTH(<Column Name Here>) TheMonth,
DAY(<Column Name Here>) TheDay
FROM <Table Name Here>
Which is the right and the best solution.
You can also (if you are not going to alter your table) do as
CREATE TABLE Dates(
StrDate NVARCHAR(10)
);
INSERT INTO Dates VALUES
(N'2018-12-04'),
(N'Invalid');
SELECT LEFT(StrDate, 4) StrYear,
SUBSTRING(StrDate, 6, 2) StrMonth,
RIGHT(StrDate, 2) StrDay
FROM Dates;
OR
SELECT YEAR(StrDate) StrYear,
MONTH(StrDate) StrMonth,
DAY(StrDate) StrDay
FROM (
SELECT TRY_CAST(StrDate AS DATE) StrDate
FROM Dates
)T