Question

With regard to Sql Server 2005, how do I coalesce this statement with the current time if this select returns null –

select top 1 OrderDate as OldestOrderDate 
from ordersview 
ORDER BY OldestOrderDate 

OrderDate is of type datettime.

Answer 1

This is how you coalesce this statement:

coalesce(
  (select top 1 OrderDate as OldestOrderDate from ordersview),
  getDate());

If you only want the time portion:

coalesce(
  (select top 1 OrderDate as OldestOrderDate from ordersview),
  convert(varchar(10), getdate(), 8));

Here is an example

But what if I wanted to convert both OldestOrderDate and getdate to just the time potion, what should I do then? – Baz

In that case, try this.