Why Datediff between GETDATE() and SYSDATETIME() in milliseconds is always different?

Question

I am trying to get Datediff between GETDATE() and SYSDATETIME() in milliseconds.

SELECT DATEDIFF(ms, GETDATE() , SYSDA         


        

Answer 1

They are two different function calls that can return two different times.

Additionally GETDATE returns a datetime datatype which only has precision of 3-4 ms whereas SYSDATETIME() returns a datetime2(7) datatype.

Even if both calls were to return exactly the same time you could see the issue that you are experiencing due to rounding.

DECLARE @D1 DATETIME2 = '2012-08-18 10:08:40.0650000'
DECLARE @D2 DATETIME = @D1 /*Rounded to 2012-08-18 10:08:40.067*/
SELECT DATEDIFF(ms, @D1 , @D2) /*Returns 2*/

The other answer is incorrect that if you substitute in GETDATE() the function is only called once as can be demonstrated from the below.

WHILE DATEDIFF(ms, GETDATE() , GETDATE()) = 0 
PRINT 'This will not run in an infinite loop'

When running a loop on my windows XP desktop with GETDATE() and SYSDATETIME I can also see results that indicate that something else might be going on as well though. Perhaps calling a different API.

CREATE TABLE #DT2
  (
     [D1] [DATETIME2](7),
     [D2] [DATETIME2](7)
  )

GO

INSERT INTO #DT2
VALUES(Getdate(), Sysdatetime())

GO 100

SELECT DISTINCT [D1],
                [D2],
                Datediff(MS, [D1], [D2]) AS MS
FROM   #DT2

DROP TABLE #DT2 

Example results below

+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
|             D1              |             D2              | MS  |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2500000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2501680 |   0 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2530000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2501680 |  -3 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2570000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2501680 |  -7 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2600000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2501680 | -10 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2630000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2501680 | -13 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2630000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2657914 |   2 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2670000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2657914 |  -2 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2700000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2657914 |  -5 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2730000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2657914 |  -8 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2770000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2657914 | -12 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2800000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2814148 |   1 |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+-----+

The rows of interest are

| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2600000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2501680 | -10 |
| 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2630000 | 2012-08-18 10:16:03.2501680 | -13 |

This discrepancy is too large to be a rounding issue and can't just be a timing issue with a delay between calling the two functions as the issue exists on more than one row that GETDATE reports 10:16:03.26X whereas SYSDATETIME reports 10:16:03.250