SQL Server SYSDATETIME Function

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the SYSDATETIME() function to get the current system date and time.

SQL Server SYSDATETIME() function

The SYSDATETIME() function returns a value of DATETIME2 that represents the current system date and time of the server on which the SQL Server instance is running.

The SYSDATETIME() function accepts no parameter:

SYSDATETIME()
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Here is the output:

Result
---------------------------
2019-05-02 22:22:33.3975855

(1 row affected)
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Note that the SYSDATETIME() function has more fractional seconds precision than the GETDATE() function.

The SYSDATETIME() is a nondeterministic function, therefore, views and columns that have expressions reference this function cannot be indexed.

SQL Server SYSDATETIME() function examples

Let’s take some example of using the SYSDATETIME() function.

A) Returning the current system date example

This example uses the CONVERT() function to convert the result of the SYSDATETIME() function to the current date:

SELECT 
    CONVERT(DATE, SYSDATETIME());
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Here is the result:

Result
----------
2019-05-02

(1 row affected)
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

B) Returning the current system time

The following example converts the result of the SYSDATETIME() function to the current time:

SELECT 
    CONVERT(TIME, SYSDATETIME()) Result;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The output is as follows:

Result
----------------
22:32:07.2066595

(1 row affected)
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the SQL Server SYSDATETIME() function to get the current system date and time.