I have an application in asp.net which worked fine untill recently when i changed the datetime format in Regional and Language Settings in Control Panel.
The date time format was default when i installed XP. I chose Indian standard time while installing XP.
I changed the date time format to dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss. And my application started to throw an exception whenever i tried to insert any datetime in to the table.
The exception i get is:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Error converting data type varchar to datetime.
Please help me on this
Hard to know exactly what's going on without seeing the code that's throwing. However, if you need to communicate dates to SQL Server, it is generally good practice to use the ISO 8601 standard for representation because it is unambiguous and locale-independent. The most important formats are:
yyyy-MM-dd for dates
hh:mm:ss for time
yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss for date/time
My guess is that you have a query that's sending over dates in the current locale, and the locale on the server does not match.
Edit: And for the record, this doesn't preclude anything that Rob said in his answer, i.e. try to avoid passing hard-coded dates or hard-coded SQL at all. This only applies if you need to for some reason.
Edit 2: I've been informed that the yyyy-MM-dd format can still be wrong for some locales; so instead of this, if you need to pass in a literal date string, you should instead use yyyyMMdd.
As per my comment, you'll probably want to make sure you're using code that behaves in a similar way to the code below (i.e. using parameters rather than string concatenation)
var myConnectionString = "connection string goes here";
var myDateValue = DateTime.Now;
using (var connection = new SqlConnection(myConnectionString))
{
using (var command = new SqlCommand("SELECT COUNT(1) FROM dbo.table WHERE datecolumn = #datevalue", connection))
{
var dateValueParameter = new SqlParameter("#datevalue", myDateValue);
command.Parameters.Add(dateValueParameter);
var result = Convert.ToInt32(command.ExecuteScalar());
}
}
Try adding "Current Language=YourLanguage" to the SQL server connection string. Where YourLanguage is the language you want SQL to use when reading values such as the dates.
You can see a list of all languages supported by SQL by executing the following SQL command:
select * from master.dbo.syslanguages
Related
I am working in ASP.NET as front end and SQL Server 2012 as backend. In ASP.NET, the user enters a date in 3 textboxes in the format DD/MM/YYYY.
Now I have concatenated these textbox values into a string. In SQL Server, I want to save this date into column DOB with a data type of DATE.
Below is concatenated string in ASP.net
string strDOB = txtYY.Text + "/" + txtMM.Text + "/" + txtDD.Text;
How can I now save this strDOB in SQL Server?
Stop using strings. Besides the advice in the comments to use a dedicated picker control, the next best advice is to parse those strings into integers (briefly), then construct a DateTime object from that and then do not let it get converted back into a string. It's when people let extra string/date conversions happen that they introduce formatting problems. So get the value:
var year = Int32.Parse(txtYY.Text);
var month = Int32.Parse(txtMM.Text);
var day = Int32.Parse(txtDD.Text);
var dob = new DateTime(year,month,day);
And then pass it to SQL Server:
var cmd = new SqlCommand(...);
cmd.Parameters.Add("#DOB",SqlDbType.Date).Value = dob;
And make sure that your query uses the parameter #DOB wherever you want to use that value.
Try this:
UPDATE [Table] SET [Column] = '' + strDOB + ''
Be careful, though... this hasn't been sanitized to guard against SQL Injection. I've only demonstrated the direct answer to your question, nothing more.
As a best practice, you should never concatenate together unchecked user input and store the result in a column. Techniques for preventing this are outside the scope of this Q&A, but are easily discovered with a minimal amount of searching.
--EDIT--
I defer to Damien's answer on this one. I agree with his syntax suggestions.
I have the following piece of inline SQL that I run from a C# windows service:
UPDATE table_name SET
status_cd = '2',
sdate = CAST('03/28/2011 18:03:40' AS DATETIME),
bat_id = '33acff9b-e2b4-410e-baaf-417656e3c255',
cnt = 1,
attempt_date = CAST('03/28/2011 18:03:40' AS DATETIME)
WHERE id = '1855'
When I run this against a SQL Server database from within the application, I get the following error:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The conversion of a varchar data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range value.
The statement has been terminated.
But if I take the piece of SQL and run it from SQL Management Studio, it will run without issue.
Any ideas what may be causing this issue?
Ambiguous date formats are interpreted according to the language of the login. This works
set dateformat mdy
select CAST('03/28/2011 18:03:40' AS DATETIME)
This doesn't
set dateformat dmy
select CAST('03/28/2011 18:03:40' AS DATETIME)
If you use parameterised queries with the correct datatype you avoid these issues. You can also use the unambiguous "unseparated" format yyyyMMdd hh:mm:ss
But if i take the piece of sql and run it from sql management studio, it will run without issue.
If you are at liberty to, change the service account to your own login, which would inherit your language/regional perferences.
The real crux of the issue is:
I use the following to convert -> date.Value.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss")
Please start using parameterized queries so that you won't encounter these issues in the future. It is also more robust, predictable and best practice.
I think the best way to work with dates between C# and SQL is, of course, use parametrized queries, and always work with DateTime objects on C# and the ToString() formating options it provides.
You better execute set datetime <format> (here you have the set dateformat explanation on MSDN) before working with dates on SQL Server so you don't get in trouble, like for example set datetime ymd. You only need to do it once per connection because it mantains the format while open, so a good practice would be to do it just after openning the connection to the database.
Then, you can always work with 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss:ffff' formats.
To pass the DateTime object to your parametrized query you can use DateTime.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss:ffff').
For parsing weird formatted dates on C# you can use DateTime.ParseExact() method, where you have the option to specify exactly what the input format is: DateTime.ParseExact(<some date string>, 'dd/MM-yyyy',CultureInfo.InvariantCulture). Here you have the DateTime.ParseExact() explanation on MSDN)
It's a date format issue. In Ireland the standard date format for the 28th of March would be "28-03-2011", whereas "03/28/2011" is the standard for the USA (among many others).
I know that this solution is a little different from the OP's case, but as you may have been redirected here from searching on google the title of this question, as I did, maybe you're facing the same problem I had.
Sometimes you get this error because your date time is not valid, i.e. your date (in string format) points to a day which exceeds the number of days of that month!
e.g.: CONVERT(Datetime, '2015-06-31') caused me this error, while I was converting a statement from MySql (which didn't argue! and makes the error really harder to catch) to SQL Server.
You could use next function to initialize your DateTime variable:
DATETIMEFROMPARTS ( year, month, day, hour, minute, seconds, milliseconds )
JAVA8: Use LocalDateTime.now().toString()
i faced this issue where i was using SQL it is different from MYSQL
the solution was puting in this format:
=date('m-d-y h:m:s');
rather than
=date('y-m-d h:m:s');
I'm using MS SQL 2000, VS2008, MVC and C#.
I'm trying to insert and update some data using stored procedures.
Some columns are of type datetime.
Regional settings on both server and client are set to Dutch (Belgium)
This means the default date format is dd/mm/yyyy.
When i try to insert or update with a date of eg. 28/03/2009, I get following errors:
Insert:
Error converting data type nvarchar to datetime
Update:
The conversion of a char data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range datetime value
When I try with a date like 01/03/2009, I get no errors but the date is saved as 03/01/2009, which is the US date format.
This is typical behaviour for problems with regional settings. But both are set to Dutch (Belgium).
Why does it save dates in the US format?
What am i missing here?
Thanks!
Stijn
You should be inserting data into the database using a DateTime object, not a string. Your client-side code should convert the client's date entry to a DateTime object using the client's regional settings, then the DateTime struct should be added to the parameter that is ultimately sent into the database.
The SQL Instance has it's own locale setting, by default "us_english"
Now, this usually happens if you pushing using varchar rather than native datetime to store data values. If your code/tables use datetime columns and you define parameters as datetime then you won't get errors.
i had this problem too, its something to do with the date format for you SQL server,
i solved it by formatting the date string to be inserted like so
DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm")
hope that helps
All above suggestions are correct but I find if you are adding a datetime as a string/varchar the safest way is in the format 'YYYY-MM-DD'
So eg.
Update MyTable
Set MyDate = '2010-03-01'
I am setting the locale of my .net application via:
string userLocale = Web.Helpers.LocaleHelpers.GetBestRFC3066Locale(this.Context.Request.UserLanguages);
if (userLocale != String.Empty)
{
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture(userLocale);
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo(userLocale);
}
This works well, so my dates will be displayed in the format based upon the locale i.e.
12/10/2009 for en-gb
and
10/12/2009 for us
However when I persist my dates via LinqToSql I need to store these dates in a common format.
Currently when a U.S. user is running the app the date stored in the DB is in U.S. format and when an U.K. user uses the app, its in a U.K. format.
Any suggestions on how best to achieve this?
Store the date as a datetime value in SQL Server. Then you don't run into a conversion problem.
Brannon has the right solution there. Once you have a variable in a datetime format in SQL you can convert it to other datetime formats using the CONVERT T-SQL keyword
I've found a similar question on stack overflow, but it didn't really answer the question I have. I need to make sure that my asp.net application is formatting the date dd/mm/yyyy the same as my SQL Server 2005.
How do I verify the date culture (if that's what it's called) of the server matches how I've programmed my app? Are there specific database settings and OS settings? Is it table-specific? I don't want to transpose my days and months.
thank you
When you get a DateTime out of the database, it should be in a non-cultured format (like the DateTime object, based on the number of ticks since a certain date). It is only when you are converting that value into a string that you need to be concerned with culture. In those cases, you can use yourDateTimeValue.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) to make sure that the information displays correctly.
I belive that if you use SqlParameters ADO.NET will take care of the rest and you don't have to worry about it. Besides, it's good for defending against SQL Injection attacks too! :)
** Watch out because SQL DateTime columns are non-nullable and their minimum value is 1/1/1753 while .net DateTimes are non-nullable with min values of 1/1/0001. **
If you're pulling data from a real DateTime column, by default it will always be in the same standard format. For saving the data to the column, you might want to specify the SqlDbType.DateTime in your parameter.
i ripped this off of http://bytes.com/forum/thread767920.html :
com.Parameters.Add("#adate", SqlDbType.DateTime).Value = DateTime.Now;
Well, if you keep datetime fields in the DB you shouldn't worry about it.
As long as you keep the dates in app strongly typed (DateTime variables) and send the dates through prepared statements with DBParameter/SqlParameter your DB will take them as is.
If you use strings to hold your dates in code, some casts will ensure you send the right values:
string sqlCmd = #"SELECT *
FROM MyTable
WHERE MyDateField = CONVERT(datetime, '{0}', 101)";
// assuming myDateString is a string with a date in the local format
sqlCmd = string.Format(sqlCmd,
Convert.ToDateTime(myDateString).ToString("yyyyMMdd"));
(the code is ugly, but hopefully it gets the point across)
As others have mentioned, you should be OK as far as storing datetimes culturally. What I would recommend is that you store all of your times as standard UTC time. In SQL Server 2005 and older there is no way to store time zone information, but if everything is stored in universal time, you should be OK because the time can be converted to the local time later on.
SQL Server 2008 does have some datatypes that are aware of time zones, and if you're using .NET 3.5 there are tools to assist with time zone handling/conversions.
Definitely keep times in universal format. This will make a world of a difference if you have to work in multiple time zones.