20,000 SQL Server Timestamp Format Examples

You will love this blog because date, timestamp functions and formatting differ dramatically between databases, and SQL Server handles them uniquely, but I have covered everything you need to know about formatting with brilliant examples and clear and concise explanations.

All of these examples have come from my books and training classes. Please do me a favor and tell your training coordinator that you know the best technical trainer in the world. Ask them to hire me to train at your company, either on-site or with a virtual class. They can see our classes, outlines, and a sample of my teaching at this link on our website.

https://coffingdw.com/education/

Below are some great examples for formatting a SQL Server timestamp to get you a great start to understanding how to use the CONVERT and FORMAT commands. Below is a breakdown of components of the FORMAT command.

yyyy: 4-digit year
yy: 2-digit year
MM: 2-digit month
MMMM: Full month name
MMM: Abbreviated month name
dd: 2-digit day of the month
dddd: Full day of the week
ddd: Abbreviated day of the week
hh: 2-digit hour in 12-hour format
HH: 2-digit hour in 24-hour format
mm: 2-digit minute
ss: 2-digit second
ffffff: Microsecond (6-digit precision)
fff: Millisecond (3-digit precision)
ff: (2-digit precision)

Most people don’t know that you can use the FORMAT command in the WHERE clause to eliminate specific rows from returning. The SQL Server query example below uses FORMAT in the WHERE and AND clauses to only return rows where the customer hit the website on a Saturday in December when the time was ’07:54:34′ and the milliseconds = 000.

I will now show you two different tables with examples of SQL Server formatting timestamps. The first table below shows the CONVERT function. The second table has 20,000 examples using FORMAT.

The table below has 20,000 examples using FORMAT. You can scroll 25 examples at a time beginning with the first page of the fundamental components.