SQL server: alter column from nvarchar to int

Question

This table has filedate(nvarchar) and Filename. The format needs to be in MMDDYYYY for the filedate.

I used

 replace(cast(filedate as varchar),'-','') 

and changed the datatype to int, which worked, but not in the format that I need.

Do I need to update the Fname and then try this or is there another way to do this?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Any column that is expected to have leading zeros is not a number. So, you want a string. My recommendation is to convert the value to a date and then format it in the way you want:

select format(convert(date, '4-17-2020', 110), 'MMddyyyy')

Or, better yet, simply convert the value to date. It is a date. So you should store and retrieve it as a date.