Question

I have 2 columns in a table of varchar datatype.

date and type are the column names in table.

the data present in the table looks like this

date        time
20090610    132713
20090610    132734

i need ms sql server query to concatenate these 2 columns data and display as datetime format.

Note :
1. the datatype of those 2 columns cannot be changed now.
2. i tried

select convert(datetime,date + time)

it says “Conversion failed when converting date and/or time from character string.”

Suggest the possible solution.

Answer 1

This will return a datetime. The bottom line is to be replaced by your table

select convert(datetime,date,112)+
coalesce(stuff(stuff(rtrim(time), 5,0,':'), 3,0,':'), '') newdate
from 
(VALUES ('20090610','132713'),('20090610', '132734'),('20090610', '      ')) yourtable(date,time)

Result:

newdate
2009-06-10 13:27:13.000
2009-06-10 13:27:34.000
2009-06-10 00:00:00.000