T-SQL DATENAME() Function

The T-SQL (Transact-SQL) DATENAME() function returns a specified part of a given date, as a string value.

Syntax

DATENAME(datepart, date)

Parameters

datepart

Required. Specify the unit type to retrieve from the date. It can be one of the following values:

datepart	Abbreviations
year	yy, yyyy
quarter	qq, q
month	mm, m
dayofyear	dy, y
day	dd, d
week	wk, ww
weekday	dw, w
hour	hh
minute	mi, n
second	ss, s
millisecond	ms
microsecond	mcs
nanosecond	ns
tzoffset	tz
iso_week	isowk, isoww

date Required. Specify a date to use to retrieve the datepart value.

Return Value

Returns a string representing the specified datepart of the specified date.

Example 1:

The example below shows the usage of DATENAME() function.

SELECT DATENAME(year, '2019-10-25');
Result: '2019'

SELECT DATENAME(yyyy, '2019-10-25');
Result: '2019'

SELECT DATENAME(yy, '2019-10-25');
Result: '2019'

SELECT DATENAME(quarter, '2019-10-25');
Result: '4'

SELECT DATENAME(month, '2019-10-25');
Result: 'October'

SELECT DATENAME(week, '2019-10-25 08:10:25');
Result: '43'

SELECT DATENAME(day, '2019-10-25');
Result: '25'

SELECT DATENAME(hh, '2019-10-25 08:10:25');
Result: '8'

SELECT DATENAME(hh, '2019-10-25 08:10:25');
Result: '8'

SELECT DATENAME(mi, '2019-10-25 08:10:25');
Result: '10'

SELECT DATENAME(ss, '2019-10-25 08:10:25');
Result: '25'

Example 2:

Consider a database table called Orders with the following records:

OrderQuantity	Price	OrderTime
100	1.58	2017-08-18 10:38:42
120	1.61	2018-03-23 07:14:16
125	1.78	2018-09-12 05:25:56
50	1.80	2019-01-16 11:52:05
200	1.72	2020-02-06 09:31:34

The statement given below can be used to get the month portion of records of column OrderTime:

SELECT *, DATENAME(month, OrderTime) AS DATENAME_Value FROM Orders;

This will produce the result as shown below:

OrderQuantity	Price	OrderTime	DATENAME_Value
100	1.58	2017-08-18 10:38:42	August
120	1.61	2018-03-23 07:14:16	March
125	1.78	2018-09-12 05:25:56	September
50	1.80	2019-01-16 11:52:05	January
200	1.72	2020-02-06 09:31:34	February

❮ T-SQL Functions