datename

Returns the specified datepart of the specified date or time as a character string.

Syntax

datename(datepart {date | time | bigtime | datetime | bigdatetime})

datepart – is a date part or abbreviation. For a list of the date parts and abbreviations recognized by the SAP ASE server, see Transact-SQL Users Guide.
date_expression – is an expression of type datetime, smalldatetime, bigdatetime, bigtime, time or a character string in a datetime format.

Example 1 – Finds the month name of a bigdatetime:

declare @a bigdatetime
select @a = "apr 12, 0001 00:00:00.010101"
select datename(mm, @a)
------------------------------
April

Example 2 – Assumes a current date of November 20, 2000:
```
select datename(month, getdate())
```
```
November
```

Example 3 – Finds the month name of a date:

declare @a date
select @a = "apr 12, 0001"
select datename(mm, @a)
------------------------------
    April

Example 4 – Finds the seconds of a time:

declare @a time
select @a = "20:43:22"
select datename(ss, @a)
------------------------------
    22

datename, a date function, returns the name of the specified part (such as the month “June”) of a datetime or smalldatetime value, as a character string. If the result is numeric, such as “23” for the day, it is still returned as a character string.
Takes a date, time, bigdatetime, bigtime, datetime, or smalldatetime value as its second argument
The date part weekday or dw returns the day of the week (Sunday, Monday, and so on) when used with datename.
Since smalldatetime is accurate only to the minute, when a smalldatetime value is used with datename, seconds and milliseconds are always 0.

See also select, where clause in Reference Manual: Commands.

ANSI SQL – Compliance level: Transact-SQL extension.

Any user can execute datename.