INF: BCPing in Just the Date of Datetime Column

Last reviewed: April 25, 1997
Article ID: Q67659

The information in this article applies to:

  - Microsoft SQL Server version 4.2 for OS/2
  - Microsoft SQL Server version 4.2

The following information discusses what happens when just the date is BCPed into a datetime field.

It is possible to BCP just the date into a datetime field. The storage size will be the same as if you had both the date and time. For a datetime column, this is 4 bytes for the number of days since January 1, 1900, and 4 bytes for the number of milliseconds after midnight on that day. If you select from SQL Server what you have input with BCP, you will see the time "12:00AM" on the end of each date, because the number of milliseconds after midnight is 0 (zero).

To display just the date portion of a datetime field, use the style parameter of the convert() function. For example:

   select convert(char(12),getdate(),3)

Additional query words: Windows NT
Keywords : kbtool SSrvBCP SSrvGen SSrvTrans
Version : 4.2 | 4.2
Platform : OS/2 WINDOWS

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Last reviewed: April 25, 1997
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