conversion of a varchar data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range value

Question

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 1         


        

Answer 1

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