How to specify a 12-hour time format in SQL Server 2008

Question

I am using SQL Server 2008 and I have a database file (mydata.mdf) in which I have a column in one of the table and that column has the datatype (Time) .

I added this database file to my WPF-C# project (using VS2010) , but I had a problem and its as follows :

This (Time) column treats time in 24-Hours system , but I want to use (12-Hour) system in my application , so is there a way to define a 12-Hour system time in SQL server2008 .

and if there isn't , what do you think is the best way to handle that ???

Pleeeeeeeeeeease help me ASAP because I'm in a hurry and I can't figure it out ...

Answer 1

The time in the database is not "formatted". It is represented in some internal format (which you can Google for but shouldn't care about) that allows it to represent each moment in the day, to the supported level of precision.

The values are only formatted when your application converts them to strings for the purpose of displaying them to the user, and you have full control over this.

So if you have read a time into an instance of the CLR DateTime class, you can display as a 12-hour time (omitting the date) with value.ToString("h:mm:ss tt"). Custom formatting options are listed here.

Answer 2

The answer is you can't really, but don't worry, it's not a problem. Format the date in your C# code.

The point is that a date and time is an absolute value, which is what you want SQL to store, then 12 hour vs 24 hour clock is merely a display detail, eg, 13:00 and 1:00pm are equivalent, don't worry about how SQL stores it, then in C# use the following to display it:

DateTime myDateTime = GetTheTimeFromSomeMethod();
myDateTime.ToString("h:mm:ss tt");

There are lots of guides, This is a good one, but there are plenty of others eg this one

Answer 3

Does it have to be formatted from the database? C# and WPF both provide many built-in date format options. For example, check out the ContentStringFormat property on a Label.

If you must do it in the database, here is a messy workaround which will work

It formats the date as a string using a 12h clock, then removes the date part of it

select right(convert(varchar, cast('1/1/2010 23:59:59' as datetime), 100), 
charindex(' ', reverse(convert(varchar, cast('1/1/2010 23:59:59' as datetime), 100)))-1)