SQL Server 2008 Administration in Action

E.1. DATE

In SQL Server 2005 and earlier, there was no way of storing a date without a time component (unless stored as a string). Further, the earliest date that could be stored was 1 Jan 1753. Fortunately, SQL Server 2008 introduces the DATE type, and as the name suggests, it stores only the date without a time component.

Consuming just 3 bytes (compared to 8 bytes for DATETIME), DATE types are stored in the format YYYY-MM-DD and permit dates from 0001-01-01 through to 9999-12-32.