How to convert data/time to string in query?

[Frank Xia]

How to convert date/time to string in query? So I can handle it with using
"Left" or "Right" function.

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

You can do that with the Format function. However, if your purpose is to
extract a part of the date, you can do that in a more locale-independent way
using the various functions designed for that purpose, such as Year(),
Month(), Day(), etc.

Here's an example that on my system (where short date format includes
four-digit years) returns the same value in both columns (albeit one is a
string and the other is an integer). The first column might return a
different result on another system, the second column would not ...

SELECT Right$(Format$([OrderDate],"Short Date"),4) AS StringDate,
Year([OrderDate]) AS OrderYear
FROM dbrders;

 

[Frank Xia]

Thanks for your help. That is what I need.

You can do that with the Format function. However, if your purpose is to
extract a part of the date, you can do that in a more locale-independent way
using the various functions designed for that purpose, such as Year(),
Month(), Day(), etc.

Here's an example that on my system (where short date format includes
four-digit years) returns the same value in both columns (albeit one is a
string and the other is an integer). The first column might return a
different result on another system, the second column would not ...

SELECT Right$(Format$([OrderDate],"Short Date"),4) AS StringDate,
Year([OrderDate]) AS OrderYear
FROM dbrders;

--
Brendan Reynolds (MVP)

How to convert date/time to string in query? So I can handle it with using
"Left" or "Right" function.

Thanks for any help in advance!