I've been doing a convert(varchar,datefield,112) on each date field that I'm using in 'between' queries in SQL server to ensure that I'm only accounting for dates and not missing any based on the time part of datetime fields.
Now, I'm hearing that the converts aren't indexable and that there are better methods, in SQL Server 2005, to compare the date part of datetimes in a query to determine if dates fall in a range.
What is the optimal, indexable, method of doing something like this:
select * from appointments
where appointmentDate>='08-01-2008' and appointmentDate<'08-15-2008'
The best way to strip the time portion of a datetime field is using datediff and dateadd functions.
DateAdd(day, datediff(day,0, MydateValue), 0)
This takes advantedge of the fact that SQL Server stores dates as two integers, one representing the number of days since day "0" - (1 jan 1900), and the second one which represents the number of ticks (each tick is about 3.33 ms) since midnight (for the time) *.
the formula above simply has to only read the first integer. There is no conversion or processing required, so it is extremely fast.
To make your queries use an index... use this formula on the input filtering parameters first, or on the "other" side of the equal sign from the tables date time field, so that the query optimizer does not have to run the calculation on every datetime field in the table to determine which rows satisfy the filter predicate. This makes your search argument "SARG-able" (Search ARGument)
Where MyDateTimeColumn > DateAdd(day,
datediff(day,0, #MydateParameter), 0) -- SARG-able
rather than
Where DateAdd(day, datediff(day,0,
MyDateTimeColumn ), 0) > #MydateParameter -- Not SARG-able
* NOTE. Internally, the second integer (the time part) stores ticks. In a day there are 24 x 60 X 60 X 300 = 25,920,000 ticks (serendipitously just below the max value a 32 bit integer can hold). However, you do not need to worry about this when arithmetically modifying a datetime... When adding or subtracting values from datetimes you can treat the value as a fraction as though it was exactly equal to the fractional portion of a day, as though the complete datetime value was a floating point number consisting of an integer portion representing the date and the fractional portion representing the time). i.e.,
`Declare #Dt DateTime Set #Dt = getdate()
Set #Dt = #Dt + 1.0/24 -- Adds one hour
Select #Dt
Set #Dt = #Dt - .25 -- Moves back 6 hours
Select #Dt`
Converting numeric types to string values (a type of Boxing) is not the best performing method of doing what you are looking for. Its not really about index-able, because the actual column type is date time.
If you are looking for the best way query for dates, then your example is right, but you may want to take into account the 3 ms precision difference in MSSQL. It can mean that records from one day can show up in another day's result.
This
select * from appointments where appointmentDate>='08-01-2008' and appointmentDate<'08-15-2008'
Should be this
select * from appointments where appointmentDate>='08-01-2008' and appointmentDate<='08-14-2008 23:59:59.996'
It's correct - doing the conversion will execute the conversion for every row queried. It's better to leave the date columns as dates, and pass in your where clauses as dates:
select * from appointments where appointmentdate between
'08/01/2008' AND '08/16/2008'
Note: Leaving off the time means midnight (00:00.000), so you will include all times for 08/01, and all times from 08/15, and anything that is exactly 08/16/2008 00:00:00
Have a computed persisted column calculate the expression you need. If columns are computed and persisted, they can also be indexed.
There is also the way described at http://www.stillnetstudios.com/comparing-dates-without-times-in-sql-server/
SELECT CAST(FLOOR(CAST( getdate() AS float )) AS datetime)
Related
What does the below query mean?
CONVERT(date,GETDATE()-1) between d.baslangictarihi and d.bitistarihi
I know how to use between by first selecting the column name and then giving the value. but here it is given the value first and then called 2 columns.
As others explained, this somewhat quirky condition checks whether yesterday's date CONVERT(date,GETDATE()-1) is between two date fields baslangictarihi and bitistarihi. More importantly, it does so without preventing the server from using any indexes that cover baslangictarihi and bitistarihi.
Indexes are created based on the actual stored values, so applying a function to a field prevents the server from using indexes to speed up searching.
So while baslangictarihi <= GETDATE() can use any indexes that cover that field to limit processing only to the matching table rows, dateadd(d,1,baslangictarihi) <= GETDATE() would have to process all table rows, calculate the result and compare it against GETDATE(). In a large table, this can be very slow.
SQL Server Date quirks
The first part has some quirks too, due to SQL Server's somewhat quirky date support. To be fair all databases and programming languages have quirks when it comes to dates.
GETDATE() returns the legacy datetime type which often behaves as a float, with the integral part an offset from 1899-12-30 (no typo, it really is December 30), and the fractional representing time. That's how dates were stored in Visual Basic in the 1990s and Excel (OADate format)
Since GETDATE() acts as a float, it's possible to subtract days by subtracting integers, so GETDATE()-1 is equivalent to DATEADD('d',GETDATE(),-1).
SQL Server has no interval type, so in some quirky code you'll even see people storing intervals as datetime, eg 0000-00-01 01:00 and adding two dates directly. None of the "new" date types introduced in ... 2005 (datetime2,datetimeoffset,date) allows this.
Finally, convert(date,....) converts datetime to date, a type that only contains a date. Effectively, this truncates the time part returned by GETDATE()
The same expression without quirks would be CONVERT(date,DATEADD(d,-1,GETDATE()))
Well you could "explode" the BETWEEN expression, such that this:
CONVERT(date, GETDATE() - 1) BETWEEN d.baslangictarihi AND d.bitistarihi
becomes this:
CONVERT(date, GETDATE() - 1) >= d.baslangictarihi AND
CONVERT(date, GETDATE() - 1) <= d.bitistarihi
This is just checking if yesterday's date happens to be in between baslangictarihi and bitistarihi, both ends included.
lets consider a sample data to understand this better.
membership_dim
id
name
dob
membership_start_date
membership_end_date
1
abc
19-05-1976
01-05-2020
31-12-2022
2
efg
10-01-1990
21-01-2018
31-12-2021
3
xyz
31-01-1990
12-01-2022
31-12-2022
Your Query
CONVERT(date,GETDATE()-1) between d.baslangictarihi and d.bitistarihi
rewriting to match the above sample data
select * from membership_dim where CONVERT(date,GETDATE()-1) between membership_start_date and membership_end_date
Result set
id
name
dob
membership_start_date
membership_end_date
1
abc
19-05-1976
01-05-2020
31-12-2022
3
xyz
31-01-1990
12-01-2022
31-12-2022
Explanation:
lets breakdown the code
CONVERT(date,GETDATE()-1)
-> getdate()-1 = returns yesterday's date in datetime format (01-23-2022 xx:xx:xx.xxx)
-> convert = converts the datatime to date (01-23-2022)
-> between = a comparison operator
01-23-2022 between 01-05-2020 and 31-12-2022 - returns true
01-23-2022 between 21-01-2018 and 31-12-2021 - returns false
01-23-2022 between 21-01-2018 and 31-12-2022 - returns true
Just understand that everything in a predicate like this is an expression. CONVERT(date,GETDATE()-1) means yesterday without the time component. Those two columns are whatever values are on the row that's being considered at the time. You know what it means if there's a column on the left, but this is no different. It gets evaluated just the same.
I am trying to write a query that will let me get records entered between now and a some number of minutes in the past. I have the number of minutes as milliseconds. So, I'm trying to write a SQL query that will let me get those records.
I see a DateAdd function. However, I don't see a function to Subtract some time from a date. From a pseduo-code perspective, I'm trying to do this:
SELECT
*
FROM
MyTable
WHERE
CreatedAt > (GetUtcDate() - milliseconds)
How do I get records from MyTable that have happened within some past window of time?
We can try using DATEADD in millisecond mode:
SELECT *
FROM MyTable
WHERE CreatedAt > DATEADD(ms, -60000, GETDATE()); -- 60000 ms = 1 minute
This would return all records which were created within one minute of the current date and time.
The function you want is DATEADD (Transact-SQL).
SELECT {YourColumns}
FROM MyTable MT
WHERE CreatedAt > DATEADD(millisecond,{value},GETUTCDATE());
Despite its name, the DATEADD function is also the "DATESUBTRACT" function that you're looking for. (Intentionally double-quoted as quasi-code.)
The first parameter defines the sorts of units you're adding or subtracting, i.e. HOUR, DAY, WEEK, etc., or, in your case, MILLISECOND. In the second parameter, if you want to add time, you enter a positive number. If you want to subtract time, as you do here, enter a negative number of units.
The best way to interact with date and time in SQL is to use specific date and time functions rather than adding dates as you would add numbers.
In this case the function you are looking for is DATEADD, using it your cord should change like this:
SELECT *
FROM MyTable
WHERE CreatedAt > DATEADD(ms, -milliseconds, GetUtcDate())
Hello I am wondering what gets compared or what the representation of the
GETDATE() > 1
is in the following line of T-SQL code below.
WHERE DATEDIFF(dd, CDF_AS_OFDATE, GETDATE()) > 1 )
What would happen if I decided to use 100 instead of 1? (I tried it, simply returned a smaller result set).
It's comparing the difference in days between CDF_AS_OFDATE and the current date, to see if it's more than 1 day. If you change it to those that have more than 100 days difference, it would most likely be a much smaller result set.
(You can determine it's in days by noticing that it's using DATEDIFF() with the dd parameter, which indicates you want the difference in days.)
it check if there was more than 1 day difference between the two date (then vs now)
SQL Server DATEDIFF() Function
The DATEDIFF() function returns the time between two dates.
Syntax
DATEDIFF(datepart,startdate,enddate)
Where startdate and enddate are valid date expressions and datepart can be one of the following:
day dd, d
Example
Now we want to get the number of days between two dates.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT DATEDIFF(day,'2008-06-05','2008-08-05') AS DiffDate
Result:
DiffDate
61
The answer is in the DATEDIFF part of the WHERE clause.
It actually evaluates only those rows where the value of CDF_AS_OFDATE at least 1 day different from the current system date.
Where to start...
In your first example...
where getdate() > 1
First getdate() returns the current date and time-of-day as a datetime value. If you read the documentation, you'll discover that (1) there is no implicit conversion from datetime to int, but there is an implicit conversion from int to datetime. That means the expression is pretty much identical to
where getdate() > convert(datetime,1)
The epoch (zero point) of the SQL Server calendar is 1900-01-01 00:00:00.000, which is what you get if you say convert(datetime,0) or convert(datetime,''). When you convert an int value to a datetime value, the integer value is taken to indicate an offset in days since the epoch. The conversion is performed by adding that many days to the epoch to get the resulting datetime value: convert(datetime,1) thus yields the datetime value 1900-01-02 00:00:00.000 and your expression is thus the equivalent of
where getdate() > '1900-01-02 00:00:00.000'
which expression will always be true unless you've seriously mucked with your systems clock.
In your second example...
where datediff( dd , CDF_AS_OF_DATE , getdate() ) > 1
getdate() as noted earlier gives you the current date and time-of-day.
datediff() returns the delta between two datetime values in the requested units of time. If you want to be pedantic about things (and I do), depending on the unit requested, the resulting value is not necessarily correct (depend on your definition of "correct"): what you get is the count of unit boundaries between the two datetime values. So even though exactly one second separates the two datetime values in the expression below,
datediff(dd,'Dec 31, 2013 23:59:59','Jan 1, 2014 00:00:00') returns 1 indicating a delta of 1 day, whilst
datediff(year,'Dec 31, 2013 23:59:59','Jan 1, 2014, 00:00:00') likewise returns1` indicating a delta of 1 year.
So your where clause is restricting the result set to rows where the delta (in days) from the as-of date to the current date/time is greater than 1.
In a SQL Server table, I have a field named Timestamp, which is a 'datetime' field. On a screen I have created, a user will pass in a date (no time), and I need to return all the records for that date.
Just doing Timestamp = #Date doesn't seem to work unless the time in the field is 00:00:00. What is the most efficient way of doing this?
Since you're on SQL Server 2008, you can use the DATE datatype.
Do a comparison between
CAST(Timestamp AS DATE) = #Date
That should work and look just at the date - no time portion.
In general you should think about the data from a specific date as data that falls in a range, not at a single point in time. So ideally your query should use a range, such as:
WHERE [Timestamp] >= #Date
AND [Timestamp] < DATEADD(DAY, 1, #Date)
In this case, luckily, the optimizer is smart and will still use an index if you use CONVERT(DATE, [timestamp]) against the column. However in a lot of cases you need to be careful because this will often make your clause non-sargable.
PS Timestamp is a horrible column name. It's a data type in SQL Server which has nothing to do with date or time.
A common technique for truncating the time part off a datetime value is to use the DATEDIFF and DATEADD functions. In your example it would be used like this to truncate the time part of the Timestamp field.
WHERE #DateEntered = DATEADD(DAY,0, DATEDIFF(DAY, 0, Timestamp))
Bascially it's taking the datetime value and finding the name of days since "the date represented by 0" (for lack of a better description) and then adding that number of days back. This effectively truncates time part.
I am porting some queries from Access to T-SQL and those who wrote the queries used the Avg aggregate function on datetime columns. This is not supported in T-SQL and I can understand why - it doesn't make sense. What is getting averaged?
So I was about to start reverse engineering what Access does when it aggregates datetime using Avg, but thought I would throw the question out here first.
I'd imagine that Access is averaging the numeric representation of the dates. You could do similar in T-SQL with the following...
select AverageDate = cast(avg(cast(MyDateColumn as decimal(20, 10))) as datetime)
from MyTable
I'm more familiar with non-MS DBMS, but... Since you cannot add two DATETIME values, you cannot ordinarily average them. However, you could do something similar to:
SELECT AVG(datetime_column - TIMESTAMP '2000-01-01 00:00:00.000000') +
TIMESTAMP '2000-01-01 00:00:00.000000'
FROM table_containing_datetime_column;
This calculates the average interval between the start of 2000 and the actual datetime values, and then adds that interval to the start of 2000. The choice of 'start of 2000' is arbitrary; as long as the datetime subtracted in the AVG() function is added back, you get a sensible answer.
This does assume that the DBMS used supports SQL standard 'timestamp' notation, and supports the INTERVAL types appropriately. The difference between two DATETIME or TIMESTAMP values should be an INTERVAL (indeed, INTERVAL DAY(9) TO SECOND(6), to be moderately accurate, though the '9' is somewhat debatable).
When appropriately mangled for the DBMS I work with, the expression 'works':
CREATE TEMP TABLE table_containing_datetime_column
(
datetime_column DATETIME YEAR TO FRACTION(5) NOT NULL
);
INSERT INTO table_containing_datetime_column VALUES('2008-11-19 12:12:12.00000');
INSERT INTO table_containing_datetime_column VALUES('2008-11-19 22:22:22.00000');
SELECT AVG(datetime_column - DATETIME(2000-01-01 00:00:00.00000) YEAR TO FRACTION(5)) +
DATETIME(2000-01-01 00:00:00.00000) YEAR TO FRACTION(5)
FROM table_containing_datetime_column;
Answer:
2008-11-19 17:17:17.00000
#David W. Fenton: "A Jet date field is an integer value for the day plus a decimal value for the time" -- no, an ACE/Jet DATETIME column is a FLOAT (synonyms DOUBLE, FLOAT8, IEEEDOUBLE, NUMBER) with limits e.g. the maximum DATETIME value is #9999-12-31:23:59:59# though the maximum FLOAT value that can be cast to DATETIME will be a little larger e.g.
SELECT CDBL(CDATE('9999-12-31 23:59:59'))
returns 2958465.99998843, however
SELECT CDATE(CDBL(2958465.9999999997))
does not error, whereas
SELECT CDATE(CDBL(2958465.9999999998))
does error.
Therefore, to preserve functionality in SQL Server, I suggest casting the DATETIME column to FLOAT e.g.
SELECT CAST(AVG(CAST(MyDateTimeColumn AS FLOAT)) AS DATETIME)
from MyTable