Change the Date Format For the Current Session in SQL Server

Whenever you connect to SQL Server, a bunch of default settings are applied to your session. These include the language and the date format settings.

The date format is normally determined by your default language. For example, if your default language is us_english, then the default date format will probably be mdy, and the first day of the week will be day 7 (Sunday).

If you change your language, you the date format will implicitly be updated accordingly.

However, you still have the option of changing the date format without changing the language. To do this, you can use SET DATEFORMAT.

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Convert a Date to Another Time Zone in SQL Server

The AT TIME ZONE clause was introduced in SQL Server 2016 to convert a date into a datetimeoffset value in a target time zone.

This function is similar to some other T-SQL functions, such as SWITCHOFFSET() and TODATETIMEOFFSET(), however, the AT TIME ZONE clause allows/(requires) you to specify the time zone offset by name, instead of an actual offset value.

This article explores how AT TIME ZONE works, and explains its benefits when compared to the other functions mentioned.

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