Question

I have the following function below.

It returns a date like Feb 29 2012 10:00PM. Is there a way to make it return the format as 2/29/2012 10:00PM

CREATE FUNCTION scrubDateString 
(
    -- Add the parameters for the function here
    @inputDate varchar(150)
)
RETURNS DATETIME
AS
BEGIN
    -- Declare the return variable here
    DECLARE @Result DATETIME

    -- Add the T-SQL statements to compute the return value here
    DECLARE @tmpDate datetime
    SET @Result = null
    IF (ISDATE(@inputDate)=1)
    BEGIN
        SET @Result = DATEADD(HH, 5, @inputDate)
    END

    -- Return the result of the function
    RETURN @Result
END

Answer 1

The function itself is returning a Date and time, “Feb 29 2012 10:00PM” and “2/29/2012 10:00AM” are merely string representations of that date (I am assuming that the AM and PM switch are not relevant to the question and are just a mistake). IF you want to format the date as a particular string look at the CONVERT function. e.g:

DECLARE @Date DATETIME
SET @Date = scrubDateString(@YourString)
SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR, @Date, 101) + ' ' + RIGHT(CONVERT(VARCHAR, @Date, 0), 7) [Date]

Although I’d strongly advise leaving your date as a date, and doing any formatting on the application side if at all possible. If I have assumed wrong about the AM PM switch you could alter the code above to the following:

DECLARE @Date DATETIME
SET @Date = scrubDateString(@YourString)
IF (DATEPART(HOUR, @Date) > 12)
    BEGIN
        SET @Date = DATEADD(HOUR, -12, @Date)
    END
SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR, @Date, 101) + ' ' + RIGHT(CONVERT(VARCHAR, @Date, 0), 7) [Date]