Share via

datetimeoffset (Transact-SQL)

  • Article

Defines a date that is combined with a time of a day that has time zone awareness and is based on a 24-hour clock.

datetimeoffset Description

Property

Value

Syntax

datetimeoffset [ (fractional seconds precision) ]

Usage

DECLARE @MyDatetimeoffset datetimeoffset(7)

CREATE TABLE Table1 ( Column1 datetimeoffset(7) )

Default string literal formats (used for down-level client)

YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn] [{+|-}hh:mm]

For more information, see the "Backward Compatibility for Down-level Clients" section that follows.

Date range

0001-01-01 through 9999-12-31

January 1,1 A.D. through December 31, 9999 A.D.

Time range

00:00:00 through 23:59:59.9999999

Time zone offset range

-14:00 through +14:00

Element ranges

YYYY is four digits, ranging from 0001 through 9999, that represent a year.

MM is two digits, ranging from 01 to 12, that represent a month in the specified year.

DD is two digits, ranging from 01 to 31 depending on the month, that represent a day of the specified month.

hh is two digits, ranging from 00 to 23, that represent the hour.

mm is two digits, ranging from 00 to 59, that represent the minute.

ss is two digits, ranging from 00 to 59, that represent the second.

n* is zero to seven digits, ranging from 0 to 9999999, that represent the fractional seconds.

hh is two digits that range from -14 to +14.

mm is two digits that range from 00 to 59.

Character length

26 positions minimum (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss {+|-}hh:mm) to 34 maximum (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss.nnnnnnn {+|-}hh:mm)

Precision, scale

Specified scale

Result (precision, scale)

Column length (bytes)

Fractional seconds precision

datetimeoffset

(34,7)

10

7

datetimeoffset(0)

(26,0)

8

0-2

datetimeoffset(1)

(28,1)

8

0-2

datetimeoffset(2)

(29,2)

8

0-2

datetimeoffset(3)

(30,3)

9

3-4

datetimeoffset(4)

(31,4)

9

3-4

datetimeoffset(5)

(32,5)

10

5-7

datetimeoffset(6)

(33,6)

10

5-7

datetimeoffset(7)

(34,7)

10

5-7

Storage size

10 bytes, fixed is the default with the default of 100ns fractional second precision.

Accuracy

100 nanoseconds

Default value

1900-01-01 00:00:00 00:00

Calendar

Gregorian

User-defined fractional second precision

Yes

Time zone offset aware and preservation

Yes

Daylight saving aware

No

Supported String Literal Formats for datetimeoffset

The following table lists the supported ISO 8601 string literal formats for datetimeoffset. For information about alphabetical, numeric, unseparated and time formats for the date and time parts of datetimeoffset, see date (Transact-SQL) and time (Transact-SQL).

ISO 8601

Description

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn][{+|-}hh:mm]

These two formats are not affected by the SET LANGUAGE and SET DATEFORMAT session locale settings. Spaces are not allowed between the datetimeoffset and the datetime parts.

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn]Z (UTC)

This format by ISO definition indicates the datetime portion should be expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). For example, 1999-12-12 12:30:30.12345 -07:00 should be represented as 1999-12-12 19:30:30.12345Z.

Time Zone Offset

A time zone offset specifies the zone offset from UTC for a time or datetime value. The time zone offset can be represented as [+|-] hh:mm:

  • hh is two digits that range from 00 to 14 and represent the number of hours in the time zone offset.

  • mm is two digits, ranging from 00 to 59, that represent the number of additional minutes in the time zone offset.

  • + (plus) or – (minus) is the mandatory sign for a time zone offset. This indicates whether the time zone offset is added or subtracted from the UTC time to obtain the local time. The valid range of time zone offset is from -14:00 to +14:00.

The time zone offset range follows the W3C XML standard for XSD schema definition and is slightly different from the SQL 2003 standard definition, 12:59 to +14:00.

The optional type parameter fractional seconds precision specifies the number of digits for the fractional part of the seconds. This value can be an integer with 0 to 7 (100 nanoseconds). The default fractional seconds precision is 100ns (seven digits for the fractional part of the seconds).

The data is stored in the database and processed, compared, sorted, and indexed in the server as in UTC. The time zone offset will be preserved in the database for retrieval.

The given time zone offset will be assumed to be daylight saving time (DST) aware and adjusted for any given datetime that is in the DST period.

For datetimeoffset type, both UTC and local (to the persistent or converted time zone offset) datetime value will be validated during insert, update, arithmetic, convert, or assign operations. The detection of any invalid UTC or local (to the persistent or converted time zone offset) datetime value will raise an invalid value error. For example, 9999-12-31 10:10:00 is valid in UTC, but overflow in local time to the time zone offset +13:50.

ANSI and ISO 8601 Compliance

The ANSI and ISO 8601 Compliance sections of the date and time topics apply to datetimeoffset.

Backward Compatibility for Down-level Clients

Some down-level clients do not support the time, date, datetime2 and datetimeoffset data types. The following table shows the type mapping between an up-level instance of SQL Server and down-level clients.

SQL Server 2012 data type

Default string literal format passed to down-level client

Down-level ODBC

Down-level OLEDB

Down-level JDBC

Down-level SQLCLIENT

time

hh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn]

SQL_WVARCHAR or SQL_VARCHAR

DBTYPE_WSTRor DBTYPE_STR

Java.sql.String

String or SqString

date

YYYY-MM-DD

SQL_WVARCHAR or SQL_VARCHAR

DBTYPE_WSTRor DBTYPE_STR

Java.sql.String

String or SqString

datetime2

YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn]

SQL_WVARCHAR or SQL_VARCHAR

DBTYPE_WSTRor DBTYPE_STR

Java.sql.String

String or SqString

datetimeoffset

YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn] [+|-]hh:mm

SQL_WVARCHAR or SQL_VARCHAR

DBTYPE_WSTRor DBTYPE_STR

Java.sql.String

String or SqString

Converting Date and Time Data

When you convert to date and time data types, SQL Server rejects all values it cannot recognize as dates or times. For information about using the CAST and CONVERT functions with date and time data, see CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)

Converting datetimeoffset Data Type to Other Date and Time Types

The following table describes what occurs when a datetimeoffset data type is converted to other date and time data types.

Data type to convert to

Conversion details

date

The year, month, and day are copied.

The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(4) value to a date value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset datetimeoffset(4) = '12-10-25 12:32:10 +01:00';
DECLARE @date date= @datetimeoffset;
SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset ', @date AS 'date';
--Result
--@datetimeoffset                date
-------------------------------- ----------
--2025-12-10 12:32:10.0000 +01:0 2025-12-10
--
--(1 row(s) affected)

time(n)

The hour, minute, second, and fractional seconds are copied. The time zone value is truncated. When the precision of the datetimeoffset(n) value is greater than the precision of the time(n) value, the value is rounded up.

The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(4) value to a time(3) value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset datetimeoffset(4) = '12-10-25 12:32:10.1237 +01:0';
DECLARE @time time(3) = @datetimeoffset;
SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset ', @time AS 'time';
--Result
--@datetimeoffset                time
-------------------------------- ------------
-- 2025-12-10 12:32:10.1237 +01:00    12:32:10.124
--
--(1 row(s) affected)

datetime

The date and time values are copied, and the time zone is truncated. When the fractional precision of the datetimeoffset(n) value is greater than three digits, the value is truncated.

The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(4) value to a datetime value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset datetimeoffset(4) = '12-10-25 12:32:10.1237 +01:0';
DECLARE @datetime datetime = @datetimeoffset;
SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset ', @datetime AS 'datetime';
--Result
--@datetimeoffset                datetime
-------------------------------- -----------------------
--2025-12-10 12:32:10.1237 +01:0 2025-12-10 12:32:10.123
--
--(1 row(s) affected)

smalldatetime

The date and hours are copied. The minutes are rounded up with respect to the seconds value and seconds are set to 0.

The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(3) value to a smalldatetime value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset datetimeoffset(3) = '1912-10-25 12:24:32 +10:0';
DECLARE @smalldatetime smalldatetime = @datetimeoffset;
SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset', @smalldatetime AS '@smalldatetime';
--Result
--@datetimeoffset                @smalldatetime
-------------------------------- -----------------------
--1912-10-25 12:24:32.000 +10:00 1912-10-25 12:25:00
--
--(1 row(s) affected)

datetime2(n)

The date and time are copied to the datetime2 value, and the time zone is truncated. When the precision of the datetime2(n) value is greater than the precision of the datetimeoffset(n) value, the fractional seconds are truncated to fit.

The follow code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(4) value to a datetime2(3) value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset datetimeoffset(4) = '1912-10-25 12:24:32.1277 +10:0';
DECLARE @datetime2 datetime2(3)=@datetimeoffset;
SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset', @datetime2 AS '@datetime2';
--Result
@datetimeoffset                    @datetime2
---------------------------------- ----------------------
1912-10-25 12:24:32.1277 +10:00    1912-10-25 12:24:32.12
--(1 row(s) affected)

Converting String Literals to datetimeoffset

Conversions from string literals to date and time types are permitted if all parts of the strings are in valid formats. Otherwise, a runtime error is raised. Implicit conversions or explicit conversions that do not specify a style, from date and time types to string literals will be in the default format of the current session. The following table shows the rules for converting a string literal to the datetimeoffset data type.

Input string literal

datetimeoffset(n)

ODBC DATE

ODBC string literals are mapped to the datetime data type. Any assignment operation from ODBC DATETIME literals into datetimeoffset types will cause an implicit conversion between datetime and this type as defined by the conversion rules.

ODBC TIME

See previous ODBC DATE rule.

ODBC DATETIME

See previous ODBC DATE rule.

DATE only

The TIME part defaults to 00:00:00. The TIMEZONE defaults to +00:00.

TIME only

The DATE part defaults to 1900-1-1. The TIMEZONE will default to +00:00.

TIMEZONE only

Default values are supplied

DATE + TIME

The TIMEZONE defaults to +00:00.

DATE + TIMEZONE

Not allowed

TIME + TIMEZONE

The DATE part defaults to 1900-1-1.

DATE + TIME + TIMEZONE

Trivial

Examples

The following example compares the results of casting a string to each date and time data type.

SELECT 
     CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29. 1234567 +12:15' AS time(7)) AS 'time' 
    ,CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29. 1234567 +12:15' AS date) AS 'date' 
    ,CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.123' AS smalldatetime) AS 
        'smalldatetime' 
    ,CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.123' AS datetime) AS 'datetime' 
    ,CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.1234567+12:15' AS datetime2(7)) AS 
        'datetime2'
    ,CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.1234567 +12:15' AS datetimeoffset(7)) AS 
        'datetimeoffset'
    ,CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.1234567+12:15' AS datetimeoffset(7)) AS
        'datetimeoffset IS08601';

Here is the result set.

Data type

Output

Time

12:35:29. 1234567

Date

2007-05-08

Smalldatetime

2007-05-08 12:35:00

Datetime

2007-05-08 12:35:29.123

datetime2

2007-05-08 12:35:29. 1234567

Datetimeoffset

2007-05-08 12:35:29.1234567 +12:15

See Also

Reference

CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)