SQL Server offers two native data types for storing date and time data: datetime
and smalldatetime. Both store the date and time together, with datetime
offering more range and precision than smalldatetime.
Table 1, compares these
two data types.
Because SQL Server stores date and time information together, working with date
and time data—even with the help of built-in T-SQL conversion functions—is challenging. Storing date and time information in the same column means you have to
parse the date information if you want to separate it into individual elements for data
input, date math, or data retrieval.
T-SQL ...