datetime Cast or Convert? [duplicate]

Answer 1

convert has an optional parameter style, and I suggest to use convert instead of cast. It helps to avoid confusion. For example, if you write cast('20130302' as date), what would you get? March 2 or February 3?

Also, if you want specific format when casting to date to string, you bound to use convert

Answer 2

The MSDN Specification link that you have posted, If you read carefully you will find your answer under section G:

G. Using CAST and CONVERT with datetime data

The following example displays the current date and time, uses CAST to change the current date and time to a character data type, and then uses CONVERT display the date and time in the ISO 8901 format.

SELECT 
   GETDATE() AS UnconvertedDateTime,
   CAST(GETDATE() AS nvarchar(30)) AS UsingCast,
   CONVERT(nvarchar(30), GETDATE(), 126) AS UsingConvertTo_ISO8601  ;
GO

Here is the result set.

UnconvertedDateTime       UsingCast                       UsingConvertTo_ISO8601

----------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------------------

2006-04-18 09:58:04.570   Apr 18 2006 9:58AM              2006-04-18T09:58:04.570

(1 row(s) affected)

You can clearly see the difference.

Update

Check this: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2012/11/21/sql-server-display-datetime-in-specific-format-sql-in-sixty-seconds-033-video/