How do I control the format in which MS-SQL Server returns datetime values?

Question

Specifically, I wish to get the date format in a pure (ISO) format:

YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss

I'm looking for a SET command or something that I can use.

I do not wish to rely on the culture setting of the server.

Note: I'm interested in the string format in which dates are returned, not entered.

Answer 1

To change the default format you need to add a new language (sp_addlanguage), set it's date format, then set the default language to it. More details can be found on this old technet article .

If you don't want to do that, then you can change it "per connection" using SET DATEFORMAT .

And if you don't want to do that, then you can use CONVERT to convert it to the relevent format string in each query.

Answer 2

Here's a handy article I found:

http://www.sqljunkies.ddj.com/Article/6676BEAE-1967-402D-9578-9A1C7FD826E5.scuk

What you're looking for is:

CONVERT(datetime,'05/08/2004',120)

This will return a date in the format you're after yyyy-mm-dd hh:mi:ss(24h) format (ODBC canonical, not ISO).

Answer 3

the formatting of the datetime depends on the client. You can use the convert function to display it as a string in the format of your choice.