Date functions are used to display information about dates and times. These functions change datetime and smalldatetime values and also perform arithmetic operations on them. Date functions can be used anywhere that an expression can be used.
SQL Server 2005 recognizes a variety of datetime data entry formats. You can use the SET DATEFORMAT statement to set the order of the dateparts (month/day/year) for entering datetime or smalldatetime data. Enclose datetime or smalldatetime values in single quotation marks.