Question

I’m trying to transfer some old SQL Server data using Excel into SQL Server. It seems that Import/Export Data application automatically sets most data columns to NVARCHAR(255). Problem I have, is one of my columns is supposed to be a DATE type, but all data in it looks like this 18.08.2000 14:48:15.

So, when I try to use this query:

SELECT CONVERT(Date, DATE_TIME,  113)
FROM someTable

I get this error:

Msg 9807, Level 16, State 0, Line 1
The input character string does not follow style 113, either change the input character string or use a different style.

None of the [styles] from CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL) are working in my case.

Any advise or help is greatly appreciated.

SOLVED:

UPDATE myTable
SET columnName = CONVERT(NVARCHAR(255),CONVERT(SMALLDATETIME, columnName,105))
ALTER TABLE myTable
ALTER COLUMN columnName SMALLDATETIME

Answer 1

So, if it will ever become useful to anyone, this is the exact code that changes datatype NVARCHAR to DATETIME:

UPDATE myTable
SET columnName = CONVERT(NVARCHAR(255),CONVERT(SMALLDATETIME, columnName,105))
ALTER TABLE myTable
ALTER COLUMN columnName SMALLDATETIME