Data type to store years?

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Should I create a field for storing years as an integer field or a char(4) field?
Thank you so much!

Posted 16-Apr-11 22:44pm

King Boy

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Abhinav S · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-16T22:52:00

Solution 1

I would think an integer may be useful if you need to perform any sort of calculations / sorting on year.

But finally it could depend on what kind of operations you might intend to perform on the date field in the future.

Posted 16-Apr-11 22:52pm

Abhinav S

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[no name] 17-Apr-11 8:41am

Thank you so much!

[no name] 17-Apr-11 8:43am

Please wait before your solution accepted. Just for more answerers paying attention to my question!

Wendelius · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-17T00:02:00

Solution 2

For those options integer is far better. But if you want to do date based calculations, why not use date. Just use for example the first day of year as date and month. With date, you wouldn't have to do conversions from int to date etc.

Posted 17-Apr-11 0:02am

Wendelius

Comments

[no name] 17-Apr-11 8:41am

As far as I know, there is some data type calls datetime or smalldatetime, but "date"? I intend to store year form only (with 4 in length), how can I do that with datetime or smalldatetime?
Thank you!

Wendelius 17-Apr-11 10:40am

There's no data type for year only but for date data type, see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb630352.aspx

[no name] 17-Apr-11 8:43am

Please wait before your solution accepted. Just for more answerers paying attention to my question!