I’ve always found SQL Server date formatting to be counter intuitive. I am pretty sure I already know the only answer is to use a slew of convert and string functions but thought I would ask just in case.
How do you get SQL Server to format a datetime to look like:
%Y-%m-%d %I:%M%P or '2012-04-05 11:56am'
My current approach involves pulling back data with SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(19), GETDATE(), 120) and then looping server/client side in code. This I find inefficient in some scenarios when exporting data say to CSV.
I think the real answer is “You don’t”, unless you upgrade your SQL Server instances to SQL Server 2012.
FORMAT (Transact-SQL)