Formatting dates in SQL Server - sql

Question

I want to ask how to format a date in the select statement. For example, I have a date '2000-07-31'. I want the output to be similar to 'Monday, the Thirty-First of July, 2000'

Answer 1

This question has already answer here.
So no built-in method exists for such a conversion.
But if you break the problem into smaller parts, you can use stackoverflow very well to solve the problem.
Check this answer.
I have modified the UDF from that answer to work for ordinal numbers as well, I did not bother with big numbers greater than one million:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnNumberToWords] (#Number AS bigint, #ordinals AS bit)
RETURNS varchar(1024)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #Below20 TABLE (
ID int IDENTITY (0, 1),
Word varchar(32)
)
DECLARE #Below100 TABLE (
ID int IDENTITY (2, 1),
Word varchar(32)
)
DECLARE #Below100ordinals TABLE (
ID int IDENTITY (2, 1),
Word varchar(32)
)
IF (#ordinals = 0)
BEGIN
INSERT #Below20 (Word)
VALUES ('Zero'), ('One'), ('Two'), ('Three'),
('Four'), ('Five'), ('Six'), ('Seven'),
('Eight'), ('Nine'), ('Ten'), ('Eleven'),
('Twelve'), ('Thirteen'), ('Fourteen'),
('Fifteen'), ('Sixteen'), ('Seventeen'),
('Eighteen'), ('Nineteen')
END
ELSE
BEGIN
INSERT #Below20 (Word)
VALUES ('Zeroth'), ('First'), ('Second'), ('Third'),
('Fourth'), ('Fifth'), ('Sixth'), ('Seventh'),
('Eight'), ('Nineth'), ('Tenth'), ('Eleventh'),
('Twelveth'), ('Thirteenth'), ('Fourteenth'),
('Fifteenth'), ('Sixteenth'), ('Seventeenth'),
('Eighteenth'), ('Nineteenth')
INSERT #Below100ordinals
VALUES ('Twentieth'), ('Thirtieth'), ('Fortieth'), ('Fiftieth'),
('Sixtieth'), ('Seventieth'), ('Eightieth'), ('Ninetieth')
END
INSERT #Below100
VALUES ('Twenty'), ('Thirty'), ('Forty'), ('Fifty'),
('Sixty'), ('Seventy'), ('Eighty'), ('Ninety')
DECLARE #English varchar(1024) = (SELECT
CASE
WHEN #Number = 0 THEN ''
WHEN #Number BETWEEN 1 AND 19 THEN (SELECT
Word
FROM #Below20
WHERE ID = #Number)
WHEN #Number BETWEEN 20 AND 99 THEN CASE
WHEN #ordinals = 1 THEN CASE
WHEN (#Number % 10 > 0) THEN (SELECT
Word
FROM #Below100
WHERE ID = #Number / 10)
+ '-' + dbo.fnNumberToWords(#Number % 10, 1)
ELSE (SELECT
Word
FROM #Below100ordinals
WHERE ID = #Number / 10)
END
ELSE (SELECT
Word
FROM #Below100
WHERE ID = #Number / 10)
+ '-' + dbo.fnNumberToWords(#Number % 10, 0)
END
WHEN #Number BETWEEN 100 AND 999 THEN (dbo.fnNumberToWords(#Number / 100, 0)) + ' Hundred' + CASE
WHEN #ordinals = 1 THEN CASE
WHEN (#Number % 100 > 0) THEN ' ' + dbo.fnNumberToWords(#Number % 100, 1)
ELSE 'th'
END
ELSE ' ' + dbo.fnNumberToWords(#Number % 100, 0)
END
WHEN #Number BETWEEN 1000 AND 999999 THEN (dbo.fnNumberToWords(#Number / 1000, 0)) + ' Thousand' + CASE
WHEN #ordinals = 1 THEN CASE
WHEN (#Number % 1000 > 0) THEN ' ' + dbo.fnNumberToWords(#Number % 1000, 1)
ELSE 'th'
END
ELSE ' ' + dbo.fnNumberToWords(#Number % 1000, 0)
END
ELSE ' INVALID INPUT'
END)
SELECT
#English = RTRIM(#English)
SELECT
#English = RTRIM(LEFT(#English, LEN(#English) - 1))
WHERE RIGHT(#English, 1) = '-'
RETURN (#English)
END
With this function you can write
DECLARE #d date = '20000731'
SELECT datename(WEEKDAY, datepart(day,#d))+
', the '+ [dbo].[fnNumberToWords](DAY(#d),1) +
' of ' + datename(MONTH ,#d) +
', year '+ [dbo].[fnNumberToWords](YEAR(#d),0)
To get result like this:
Thursday, the Thirty-First of July, year Two Thousand
It would be probably much more difficult for computer non-friendly languages other than English.

Answer 2

Create UDF using this script or even try to improve it.
declare #t table(col1 int,col2 varchar(50),col3 int)
insert into #t (col1,col2) VALUES (0,'Zero'),(1,'First'),(2,'Second')
,(3,'Third'),(4,'Fourth'),(5,'fifth'),(6,'Sixth'),(7,'Seventh'),(8,'Eighth')
,(9,'Ninth'),(10,'Tenth'),(11,'eleventh'),(12,'Twelveth'),(13,'thirteenth')
,(14,'Fourteenth'),(15,'Fifteeth'),(16,'Sixteenth'),(17,'Seventeenth')
,(18,'Eighteenth'),(19,'Nineteenth'),(20,'Twenty'),(30,'Thirty')
declare #input varchar(10)='21'
declare #Words varchar(2000)=''
declare #i int=len(#input)
while((len(#input)>0))
begin
if(#input>=0 and #input<=19 and #i=len(#input))
begin
select #Words=#Words+' '+ col2 from #t where col1 =#input
BREAK
END
else if(len(#input) between 3 and 4)
BEGIN
select #Words=#Words+' '+ col2 from #t where col1 =#input/cast(('1'+replicate('0',len(#input)-1)) as int)
select #Words=#Words+' '+ col2 from #t where col1 ='1'+replicate('0',len(#input)-1)
END
else
begin
select #Words=#Words+' '+ col2 from #t where col1 =left(#input,1)+ replicate('0',#i-1)
END
set #input=stuff(#input,1,1,'')
if(cast(#input as int)=0)
BREAK
set #i=#i-1
end
select #Words
then do this
declare #Input date='2017-04-30'
select datename(WEEKDAY, datepart(day,#input))+' '+'the '
+fn.colname
+' '+'of '+datename(MONTH, #Input)+' 'cast(datepart(year,#input) as varchar)
cross apply(select colname from fn_NumtoWords(datepart(day,#input)))fn

Answer 3

Try this:
select Datename(Weekday,Month('2000-07-31')), Cast(Day('2000-07-31') As char), YEAR('2000-07-31')