How to calculate age (in years) based on Date of Birth and getDate()

Question

I have a table listing people along with their date of birth (currently a nvarchar(25))

How can I convert that to a date, and then calculate their age in years?

Answer 1

There are issues with leap year/days and the following method, see the update below:

try this:

DECLARE @dob  datetime
SET @dob='1992-01-09 00:00:00'

SELECT DATEDIFF(hour,@dob,GETDATE())/8766.0 AS AgeYearsDecimal
    ,CONVERT(int,ROUND(DATEDIFF(hour,@dob,GETDATE())/8766.0,0)) AS AgeYearsIntRound
    ,DATEDIFF(hour,@dob,GETDATE())/8766 AS AgeYearsIntTrunc

OUTPUT:

AgeYearsDecimal                         AgeYearsIntRound AgeYearsIntTrunc
--------------------------------------- ---------------- ----------------
17.767054                               18               17

(1 row(s) affected)

UPDATE here are some more accurate methods:

BEST METHOD FOR YEARS IN INT

DECLARE @Now  datetime, @Dob datetime
SELECT   @Now='1990-05-05', @Dob='1980-05-05'  --results in 10
--SELECT @Now='1990-05-04', @Dob='1980-05-05'  --results in  9
--SELECT @Now='1989-05-06', @Dob='1980-05-05'  --results in  9
--SELECT @Now='1990-05-06', @Dob='1980-05-05'  --results in 10
--SELECT @Now='1990-12-06', @Dob='1980-05-05'  --results in 10
--SELECT @Now='1991-05-04', @Dob='1980-05-05'  --results in 10

SELECT
    (CONVERT(int,CONVERT(char(8),@Now,112))-CONVERT(char(8),@Dob,112))/10000 AS AgeIntYears

you can change the above 10000 to 10000.0 and get decimals, but it will not be as accurate as the method below.

BEST METHOD FOR YEARS IN DECIMAL

DECLARE @Now  datetime, @Dob datetime
SELECT   @Now='1990-05-05', @Dob='1980-05-05' --results in 10.000000000000
--SELECT @Now='1990-05-04', @Dob='1980-05-05' --results in  9.997260273973
--SELECT @Now='1989-05-06', @Dob='1980-05-05' --results in  9.002739726027
--SELECT @Now='1990-05-06', @Dob='1980-05-05' --results in 10.002739726027
--SELECT @Now='1990-12-06', @Dob='1980-05-05' --results in 10.589041095890
--SELECT @Now='1991-05-04', @Dob='1980-05-05' --results in 10.997260273973

SELECT 1.0* DateDiff(yy,@Dob,@Now) 
    +CASE 
         WHEN @Now >= DATEFROMPARTS(DATEPART(yyyy,@Now),DATEPART(m,@Dob),DATEPART(d,@Dob)) THEN  --birthday has happened for the @now year, so add some portion onto the year difference
           (  1.0   --force automatic conversions from int to decimal
              * DATEDIFF(day,DATEFROMPARTS(DATEPART(yyyy,@Now),DATEPART(m,@Dob),DATEPART(d,@Dob)),@Now) --number of days difference between the @Now year birthday and the @Now day
              / DATEDIFF(day,DATEFROMPARTS(DATEPART(yyyy,@Now),1,1),DATEFROMPARTS(DATEPART(yyyy,@Now)+1,1,1)) --number of days in the @Now year
           )
         ELSE  --birthday has not been reached for the last year, so remove some portion of the year difference
           -1 --remove this fractional difference onto the age
           * (  -1.0   --force automatic conversions from int to decimal
                * DATEDIFF(day,DATEFROMPARTS(DATEPART(yyyy,@Now),DATEPART(m,@Dob),DATEPART(d,@Dob)),@Now) --number of days difference between the @Now year birthday and the @Now day
                / DATEDIFF(day,DATEFROMPARTS(DATEPART(yyyy,@Now),1,1),DATEFROMPARTS(DATEPART(yyyy,@Now)+1,1,1)) --number of days in the @Now year
             )
     END AS AgeYearsDecimal