It’s easy to format dates using the convert function in Sybase, but it’s less easy to remember the cryptic formatting style codes that go with it.

For example using style code 112:

select convert(char(8), birthday, 112) from People

will format the birthday column (with value 19th Feb 1984) as:


19840231

For quick reference, these formatting codes are listed below:

Style Output
0 mon dd yyyy hh:miAM (or PM)
1 mm/dd/yy
2 yy.mm.dd
3 dd/mm/yy
4 yy.mm.dd
5 dd-mm-yy
6 dd mon yy
7 mon dd, yy
8 hh:mm:ss
9 mon dd yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM (or PM)
10 mm-dd-yy
11 yy/mm/dd
12 yymmdd
100 mon dd yyyy hh:miAM (or PM)
101 mm/dd/yyyy
102 yyyy.mm.dd
103 dd/mm/yyyy
104 yyyy.mm.dd
105 dd-mm-yyyy
106 dd mon yyyy
107 mon dd, yyyy
108 hh:mm:ss
109 mon dd yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM (or PM)
110 mm-dd-yyyy
111 yyyy/mm/dd
112 yyyymmdd