GetDate() or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

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GetDate() or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

Jack Corbett

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Points: 184394
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September 22, 2010 at 10:19 am

#224290

You can even leave a comment as to why. My habit is GetDate(), but I'm converting to CURRENT_TIMESTAMP as I think it is clearer.
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Alvin Ramard SSC-Forever Points: 41190 More actions · Answer 1

I've yet to come across with any reason to not use GetDate() so I'm sticking with GetDate().

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Derrick Smith SSChampion Points: 10833 More actions · Answer 2

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is the ANSI way to do it..so I guess if you're into such things, go with that.

I use getdate() because I've been using it for roughly a hundred years now, and I probably couldn't break the habit if I tried.

Both commands execute the same internal SQL command, so there is no performance/result difference either way.

Lowell SSC Guru Points: 323518 More actions · Answer 3

i use getdate() excluseively; like others havre said, it's been in my repitoir for years, and also because of that datatype where a timestamp is not really a timestamp, but it's a rowversion indicator instead, i think the variable current_timestamp is "contaminated", so i avoid using it and stick with getdate() function.

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vinothraj Ten Centuries Points: 1349 More actions · Answer 4

I would like to use getdate() mostly as its having frequent hits than current_timestamp. So far i couldnt see any objections with getdate() and its user friendly.

LadyRuna SSCrazy Points: 2419 More actions · Answer 5

I use CURRENT_TIMESTAMP most often, but if I'm feeling lazy about typing, I'll use getdate() because it's fewer characters to type. 🙂

In years past, I'd always used getdate(), but I'd read that CURRENT_TIMESTAMP was supposedly "better", so I've switched over. I'm not certain about the truth in that, but I do like the idea of at least attempting to follow ANSI standards.

fabricioaraujorj SSC Journeyman Points: 88 More actions · Answer 6

If there's a standard (be it de-facto or formal) way and a non-standard way, and the non-standard give me no advantage I use the standard.

So I use CURRENT_TIMESTAMP.

GSquared SSC Guru Points: 260824 More actions · Answer 7

I tend to use GetDate() because of habit, but I have to admit, Current_Timestamp is more expressive of what it does, more intuitive to a person who isn't already indoctrinated into one or the other, and it can't hurt to follow the standard. I plan to switch over ... tomorrow ... or maybe ...

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Johan Bijnens SSC Guru Points: 135377 More actions · Answer 8

I noticed my devs prefer getdate because they get confused by sqlservers timestamp data type and that same word in current_timestamp !

:blush:

I think that issue should have been fixed by microsoft years ago.

(rename that datatype !)

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WayneS SSC Guru Points: 95460 More actions · Answer 9

I think Microsoft prefers getdate().

CREATE TABLE #test (RowID INT IDENTITY, MyDate DATETIME DEFAULT (CURRENT_TIMESTAMP));

SELECT definition

FROM tempdb.sys.default_constraints

WHERE parent_object_id = object_id('tempdb..#test');

returns:

definition

-----------

(getdate())

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vinothraj Ten Centuries Points: 1349 More actions · Answer 10

I've checked elapsing time for each of those and got approximate time is less for current_timestamp than getdate().

Is current_timestamp better? i think so....

vinothraj Ten Centuries Points: 1349 More actions · Answer 11

by the by,.... current_timestamp averages 0.21 seconds where as getdate() averages 0.234 seconds.

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 12

Having been using GETDATE() since I started using SQL Server, that is what I use. However, now that I am using Oracle, I have to change my ways. Will this affect how I code SQL Server, only time will tell.

tommyh SSCertifiable Points: 6302 More actions · Answer 13

vinothraj (12/16/2010)
by the by,.... current_timestamp averages 0.21 seconds where as getdate() averages 0.234 seconds.

I seriously doubt that it takes 0.21 SECONDS to run current_timestamp (or getdate() for that matter) one time.

Doing

declare @i integer, @d datetime

select @i = 1

while @i < 100000 select @d = getdate(), @i = @i + 1

takes about 0.5s. So 1 run would be something like 0.000005s. Well actually less since there is ALOT of extra code in my test besides the date thing.

/T

vinothraj Ten Centuries Points: 1349 More actions · Answer 14

I'm working in linked server but you might be working in your own. i just told it based upon the average of ten times but i would like to convey it seems to be current_timestamp conceives less time.