Question

I have a date field I pull in from excel as a varchar type and I currently convert it using this line:

convert(date,[Appt Date],103) as [Appt date]

this works but the result is a date in the following format:

YYYY/MM/DD

According to other sites the 103 format at the end of the line should convert this varchar to UK formatting ( DD/MM/YYYY ).

Can anyone advise why this is not happening?

Answer 1

By default, MSSQL server store dates in YYYY/MM/DD. You can only change the language on the whole server, not individual databases.

set language 'british english'

run this first before inserting.

or another alternative is to use SET DATEFORMAT (from MSDN)

declare @dates table (orig varchar(50) ,parsed datetime)

SET DATEFORMAT ydm;

insert into @dates
select '2008-09-01','2008-09-01'

SET DATEFORMAT ymd;
insert into @dates
select '2008-09-01','2008-09-01'

select * from @dates

It should be VARCHAR not DATE

SELECT convert(VARCHAR(20),[Appt Date],103) as [Appt date]