ISDATE (T-SQL)

Determines whether an input expression is a valid date.

Syntax

ISDATE(expression)

Arguments

expression

Is an expression to be validated as a date. expression is any expression that returns a varchar data type.

Return Types

int

Remarks

ISDATE returns 1 if the input expression is a valid date; otherwise, it returns 0. This table shows the return values for a selection of examples.

Examples

A. Use ISDATE to check a variable

This example checks the @datestring local variable for valid date data.

DECLARE @datestring varchar(8)

SET @datestring = '12/21/98'

SELECT ISDATE(@datestring)

Here is the result set:

-----------

1          

B. Use ISDATE to check a column for dates

This example creates the test_dates table and inserts two values. ISDATE is used to determine whether the values in the columns are dates.

USE tempdb

CREATE TABLE test_dates (Col_1 varchar(15), Col_2 datetime)

GO

INSERT INTO test_dates VALUES ('abc', 'July 13, 1998')

GO

SELECT ISDATE(Col_1) AS Col_1, ISDATE(Col_2) AS Col_2
    FROM test_dates

Here is the result set:

Col_1                     Col_2              

-----------------         --------------------

0                         1                  

See Also