Order By Case Cast Convert Error

[jguilford]

I have created a SQL Stored Procedure that uses a Case statement to
determine the Order By. For one of the Case statements I am trying to
turn a Char field into Datetime in for the Order By, however I can not
get it to work. Can someone please take a look and my code below and
tell me what I am doing wrong. Thank you.

ORDER BY
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'dttm_stamp' THEN dttm_stamp End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN CAST(CONVERT(char(10),
Event_Date1,101) as datetime) End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'FullName' THEN Emp_lastname + ', ' +
Emp_firstname End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'FullName Desc' THEN Emp_lastname + ', ' +
Emp_firstname End DESC,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Emp_SSN' THEN Emp_SSN End

[Simon Hayes]

<jg*******@cybergroup.com> wrote in message
news:11*********************@c13g2000cwb.googlegro ups.com...

I have created a SQL Stored Procedure that uses a Case statement to
determine the Order By. For one of the Case statements I am trying to
turn a Char field into Datetime in for the Order By, however I can not
get it to work. Can someone please take a look and my code below and
tell me what I am doing wrong. Thank you.

ORDER BY
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'dttm_stamp' THEN dttm_stamp End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN CAST(CONVERT(char(10),
Event_Date1,101) as datetime) End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'FullName' THEN Emp_lastname + ', ' +
Emp_firstname End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'FullName Desc' THEN Emp_lastname + ', ' +
Emp_firstname End DESC,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Emp_SSN' THEN Emp_SSN End

What does "can not get it to work" mean? Do you get errors, or do you get
unexpected results? The best idea would probably be to post CREATE TABLE and
INSERT statements to set up a test case which illustrates your problem.

http://www.aspfaq.com/etiquette.asp?id=5006

Simon

[Hugo Kornelis]

On 17 Jan 2005 09:42:05 -0800, jg*******@cybergroup.com wrote:

I have created a SQL Stored Procedure that uses a Case statement to
determine the Order By. For one of the Case statements I am trying to
turn a Char field into Datetime in for the Order By, however I can not
get it to work. Can someone please take a look and my code below and
tell me what I am doing wrong. Thank you.
Hi jquilford,

I guess that this is the line that's giving you trouble:
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN CAST(CONVERT(char(10),
Event_Date1,101) as datetime) End,

You are converting the datetime variable to the american mm/dd/yyyy
format, which is not very well suited for sorting. Then you are converting
it back to datetime, running alll kinds of risks because this format is
ambiguous - it's easily misinterpreted as dd/mm/yyyy, causing either wrong
sorting or conversion errors.

If your intention is to strip the time part from the datetime column, so
you can order by the date part only, use

CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN DATEADD(day, DATEDIFF(day,
'20000101', Event_Date1), '20000101')

Or, if you really want to do it by conversion to string and back, use the
safe yyyymmdd format:

CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN CAST(CONVERT(char(8),
Event_Date1,112) as datetime) End,

Best, Hugo
--

(Remove _NO_ and _SPAM_ to get my e-mail address)

[Erland Sommarskog]

Hugo Kornelis (hugo@pe_NO_rFact.in_SPAM_fo) writes:

Or, if you really want to do it by conversion to string and back, use the
safe yyyymmdd format:

CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN CAST(CONVERT(char(8),
Event_Date1,112) as datetime) End,

Or simply say:

CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1'
THEN CONVERT(char(8), Event_Date1,112)
End,

Then again, we have no idea jguildford mean "I can not get it to work".

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp

[Hugo Kornelis]

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 22:40:11 +0000 (UTC), Erland Sommarskog wrote:

Hugo Kornelis (hugo@pe_NO_rFact.in_SPAM_fo) writes:

Or, if you really want to do it by conversion to string and back, use the
safe yyyymmdd format:

CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN CAST(CONVERT(char(8),
Event_Date1,112) as datetime) End,
Or simply say:

CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1'
THEN CONVERT(char(8), Event_Date1,112)
End,

Hi Erland,

Of course - no need to change it back to datetime in this case. Thanks!

Then again, we have no idea jguildford mean "I can not get it to work".

Maybe he (she?) will post with more details?

Best, Hugo
--

(Remove _NO_ and _SPAM_ to get my e-mail address)

[--CELKO--]

1) why are you using a CASE expression in an ORDER BY? Is the
destruction of portable code one of your design goals?

2) The column used for a sort should appear in the output so a human
being can use it to search the list. Basic human factors, etc. Put it
in the SELECT list.

3) Why are you making a date into a string in the first place? You can
sort of temporal datatypes too. And why are you converting it to a
string that is not in temporal order?

[jagguil4d]

Let me try to better explain my problem. I have created a page in
asp.net that has a datagrid that pulls a few fields form a SQL Server
table. Also on this page there is a dropdown box that allows you to
pick the way the data is sorted. You can pick to sort it by the data
the record was created, name (both ascending and descending), social
security number and by the date of the event. Now here is my problem,
the Event_Date1 field is a 10 character field (00/00/0000) instead of a
datetime field, it was set up like this a long time ago and can not be
changed. Because it is a character field when you use it to sort the
data it is sorted by month then day then year instead of year then
month then day. I tried to use a Cast and Convert statement to change
it to a datetime so it would sort correctly but now when I try to sort
by Event_Date1 I receive this error: "The conversion of a char data
type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range datetime
value." I have included all of the code in my stored procedure below.
I hop this clears up some of the confusion. Let me know if there is
anything else I did not clear up. Thank you.

CREATE PROCEDURE spShowArchives
@SecurityID int,
@SortBy varchar(50)
AS
SELECT ID, Emp_lastname + ', ' + Emp_firstname as FullName, Emp_SSN,
Event_Date1, Injury_Illness_Type, Jurisdiction, Injury_Cause_Desc,
SISCO_claim, dttm_stamp FROM omni_table
WHERE security_id = @SecurityID
AND omni_table.deleted_flag = 0
AND (SISCO_claim <> '' or SISCO_claim <> null or SISCO_claim <>
'Submit')
ORDER BY
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'dttm_stamp' THEN dttm_stamp End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN CAST(CONVERT(char(10),
Event_Date1,101) as datetime) End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'FullName' THEN Emp_lastname + ', ' +
Emp_firstname End,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'FullName Desc' THEN Emp_lastname + ', ' +
Emp_firstname End DESC,
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Emp_SSN' THEN Emp_SSN End
GO

[Hugo Kornelis]

On 18 Jan 2005 11:53:03 -0800, jagguil4d wrote:

Let me try to better explain my problem. (snip) Now here is my problem,
the Event_Date1 field is a 10 character field (00/00/0000) instead of a
datetime field, it was set up like this a long time ago and can not be
changed.
Hi jagguil4d / jguilford,

This is not correct. Of course it *can* be changed. You probably meant to
write that someone in your organization doesn't *want* it to be changed.
And that someone is most likely the person who's budget is impacted by the
cost of actually imprivong your system, but doesn't suffer from the
(eventually) much higher costs of numerous workarounds, bugfixes and error
recovery.

Because it is a character field when you use it to sort the
data it is sorted by month then day then year instead of year then
month then day. I tried to use a Cast and Convert statement to change
it to a datetime so it would sort correctly but now when I try to sort
by Event_Date1 I receive this error: "The conversion of a char data
type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range datetime
value."

You might try if you have more luck with
CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN CONVERT(datetime, Event_Date1,
101) End,

If that fails as well, you have at least one row in your table with an
invalid date (and boy, are you lucky if it is indeed only one <g>). These
can be hard to find. A good starting point would be
SELECT KeyColumn, Event_Date1
FROM omni_table
WHERE ISDATE(Event_Date1) = 0

If the above returns no rows, but you get errors converting Event_Date1 to
datetime, then you probably have rows with a date in DD/MM/YYYY format, or
some other date format. The following will hopefully catch most of these
buggers:
SELECT KeyColumn, Event_Date1
FROM omni_table
WHERE Event_Date1 >= '13'
OR Event_Date1 NOT LIKE '[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]'

Good luck! (You'll need it...)

Best, Hugo
--

(Remove _NO_ and _SPAM_ to get my e-mail address)

[Erland Sommarskog]

jagguil4d (jg*******@cybergroup.com) writes:

Now here is my problem, the Event_Date1 field is a 10 character field
(00/00/0000) instead of a datetime field, it was set up like this a long
time ago and can not be changed.

Of course it can! I hear this lame excuse every time, but seriously,
yes it can be changed. Just why would it be left unchanged?

Anyway, as Hugo points out you have garabge in this column, so if
you insist on that you don't want to change it, do this:

CASE WHEN @SortBy = 'Event_Date1' THEN
substring(Event_Date1, 7, 4) + substring(Event_Date1, 1, 2) +
substring(Event_Date1, 4, 2)
--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp

[Erland Sommarskog]

--CELKO-- (jc*******@earthlink.net) writes:

1) why are you using a CASE expression in an ORDER BY? Is the
destruction of portable code one of your design goals?

Because he more cares about serving his users than paying sacrifice
to the Holy Church of Portability.
--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp

[--CELKO--]

>> he more cares about serving his users than paying sacrifice to the
Holy Church of Portability. <<

When you can get portability for no extra cost, there is no sacrifice
and considerable gains in maintaining the code over the life of the
system. Would really use getdate() instead of CURRENT_TIMESTAMP to
save a few keystrokes? Or ISNULL() instead of COALESCE()?

[Erland Sommarskog]

--CELKO-- (jc*******@earthlink.net) writes:

When you can get portability for no extra cost, there is no sacrifice
and considerable gains in maintaining the code over the life of the
system. Would really use getdate() instead of CURRENT_TIMESTAMP to
save a few keystrokes? Or ISNULL() instead of COALESCE()?

In this case you questioned the use of CASE in ORDER BY, which
jguilford had added to offer desired functionailty to his application.
So there is a cost to be portable here.

By the way, there is a situations where isnull() works, but not
coalesce().

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp