datetimeoffset (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW) SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric

Defines a date that is combined with a time of a day based on a 24-hour clock like datetime2, and adds time zone awareness based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

datetimeoffset description

Supported string literal formats for datetimeoffset

The following table lists the supported ISO 8601 string literal formats for datetimeoffset. For information about alphabetical, numeric, unseparated, and time formats for the date and time parts of datetimeoffset, see date (Transact-SQL) and time (Transact-SQL).

The following example compares the results of casting a string to each date and time data type.

SELECT CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29. 1234567 +12:15' AS TIME(7)) AS 'time',
    CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29. 1234567 +12:15' AS DATE) AS 'date',
    CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.123' AS SMALLDATETIME) AS 'smalldatetime',
    CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.123' AS DATETIME) AS 'datetime',
    CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.1234567+12:15' AS DATETIME2(7)) AS 'datetime2',
    CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.1234567 +12:15' AS DATETIMEOFFSET(7)) AS 'datetimeoffset',
    CAST('2007-05-08 12:35:29.1234567+12:15' AS DATETIMEOFFSET(7)) AS 'datetimeoffset IS08601';

Here's the result set.

Time zone offset

A time zone offset specifies the zone offset from UTC for a time or datetime value. The time zone offset can be represented as [+|-] hh:mm:

• hh is two digits that range from 00 to 14 and represent the number of hours in the time zone offset.

• mm is two digits, ranging from 00 to 59, that represent the number of additional minutes in the time zone offset.

• + (plus) or - (minus) is the mandatory sign for a time zone offset. This sign indicates whether the time zone offset is added or subtracted from the UTC time to obtain the local time. The valid range of time zone offset is from -14:00 to +14:00.

The time zone offset range follows the W3C XML standard for XSD schema definition, and is slightly different from the SQL 2003 standard definition, 12:59 to +14:00.

The optional type parameter fractional seconds precision specifies the number of digits for the fractional part of the seconds. This value can be an integer with 0 to 7 (100 nanoseconds). The default fractional seconds precision is 100 ns (seven digits for the fractional part of the seconds).

The data is stored in the database and processed, compared, sorted, and indexed in the server as in UTC. The time zone offset is preserved in the database for retrieval.

The given time zone offset is assumed to be daylight saving time (DST) aware and adjusted for any given datetime that is in the DST period.

For datetimeoffset type, both UTC and local (to the persistent or converted time zone offset) datetime value is validated during insert, update, arithmetic, convert, or assign operations. The detection of any invalid UTC or local (to the persistent or converted time zone offset) datetime value raises an invalid value error. For example, 9999-12-31 10:10:00 is valid in UTC, but overflows in local time to the time zone offset +13:50.

Time zone conversion syntax

SQL Server 2016 (13.x) introduced the AT TIME ZONE syntax to facilitate daylight savings-aware, universal time zone conversions. This syntax is especially useful when converting data without time zone offsets, to data with time zone offsets. To convert to a corresponding datetimeoffset value in a target time zone, see AT TIME ZONE.

ANSI and ISO 8601 compliance

The ANSI and ISO 8601 compliance sections of the date and time articles apply to datetimeoffset.

Backward compatibility for down-level clients

Some down-level clients don't support the time, date, datetime2, and datetimeoffset data types. The following table shows the type mapping between an up-level instance of SQL Server and down-level clients.

Microsoft Fabric support

In Microsoft Fabric, currently you cannot create columns with the datetimeoffset data type, but you can use datetimeoffset for converting data with the AT TIME ZONE (Transact-SQL) function, for example:

SELECT
CAST(CAST('2024-07-03 00:00:00' AS DATETIMEOFFSET) AT TIME ZONE 'Pacific Standard Time' AS datetime2) AS PST

Convert date and time data

When you convert to date and time data types, SQL Server rejects all values that it can't recognize as dates or times. For information about using the CAST and CONVERT functions with date and time data, see CAST and CONVERT.

Convert to datetimeoffset data type

This section provides an example of updating data from a data type without offsets to a new datetimeoffset data type column.

First, verify the time zone name from the sys.time_zone_info system catalog view.

SELECT * FROM sys.time_zone_info WHERE name = 'Pacific Standard Time';

The following example uses the AT TIME ZONE syntax twice. The sample code creates a table dbo.Audit, adds data that spans multiple daylight savings time changes, and adds a new datetimeoffset column. We assume that the AuditCreated column is a *datetime2 data type without offsets, and was written using the UTC time zone.

In the UPDATE statement, the AT TIME ZONE syntax first adds UTC time zone offset to the existing AuditCreated column data, then converts the data from UTC to Pacific Standard Time, correctly adjusting the historical data for each past daylight savings time range in the United States.

CREATE TABLE dbo.Audit (AuditCreated DATETIME2(0) NOT NULL);
GO

INSERT INTO dbo.Audit (AuditCreated)
VALUES ('1/1/2024 12:00:00');

INSERT INTO dbo.Audit (AuditCreated)
VALUES ('5/1/2024 12:00:00');

INSERT INTO dbo.Audit (AuditCreated)
VALUES ('12/1/2024 12:00:00');
GO

ALTER TABLE dbo.Audit
ADD AuditCreatedOffset DATETIMEOFFSET(0) NULL;
GO

DECLARE @TimeZone VARCHAR(50);

SELECT @TimeZone = [name]
FROM sys.time_zone_info
WHERE [name] = 'Pacific Standard Time';

UPDATE dbo.Audit
SET AuditCreatedOffset = AuditCreated
    AT TIME ZONE 'UTC' AT TIME ZONE @TimeZone
WHERE AuditCreatedOffset IS NULL;
GO

SELECT *
FROM dbo.Audit;

Here's the result set.

AuditCreated         AuditCreatedOffset
-------------------  --------------------------
2024-01-01 12:00:00  2024-01-01 04:00:00 -08:00
2024-05-01 12:00:00  2024-05-01 05:00:00 -07:00
2024-12-01 12:00:00  2024-12-01 04:00:00 -08:00

Convert datetimeoffset data type to other date and time types

This section describes what occurs when a datetimeoffset data type is converted to other date and time data types.

When you convert to date, the year, month, and day are copied. The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(4) value to a date value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset DATETIMEOFFSET(4) = '12-10-25 12:32:10 +01:00';
DECLARE @date DATE = @datetimeoffset;

SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset', @date AS 'date';

Here's the result set.

@datetimeoffset                 date
------------------------------ ----------
2025-12-10 12:32:10.0000 +01:0 2025-12-10

If the conversion is to time(n), the hour, minute, second, and fractional seconds are copied. The time zone value is truncated. When the precision of the datetimeoffset(n) value is greater than the precision of the time(n) value, the value is rounded up. The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(4) value to a time(3) value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset DATETIMEOFFSET(4) = '12-10-25 12:32:10.1237 +01:0';
DECLARE @time TIME(3) = @datetimeoffset;

SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset ', @time AS 'time';

Here's the result set.

@datetimeoffset                 time
------------------------------- ------------
2025-12-10 12:32:10.1237 +01:00 12:32:10.124

When you convert to datetime, the date and time values are copied, and the time zone is truncated. When the fractional precision of the datetimeoffset(n) value is greater than three digits, the value is truncated. The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(4) value to a datetime value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset DATETIMEOFFSET(4) = '12-10-25 12:32:10.1237 +01:0';
DECLARE @datetime DATETIME = @datetimeoffset;

SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset ', @datetime AS 'datetime';

Here's the result set.

@datetimeoffset                datetime
------------------------------ -----------------------
2025-12-10 12:32:10.1237 +01:0 2025-12-10 12:32:10.123

For conversions to smalldatetime, the date and hours are copied. The minutes are rounded up with respect to the seconds value and seconds are set to 0. The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(3) value to a smalldatetime value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset DATETIMEOFFSET(3) = '1912-10-25 12:24:32 +10:0';
DECLARE @smalldatetime SMALLDATETIME = @datetimeoffset;

SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset', @smalldatetime AS '@smalldatetime';

Here's the result set.

@datetimeoffset                @smalldatetime
------------------------------ -----------------------
1912-10-25 12:24:32.000 +10:00 1912-10-25 12:25:00

If the conversion is to datetime2(n), the date and time are copied to the datetime2 value, and the time zone is truncated. When the precision of the datetime2(n) value is greater than the precision of the datetimeoffset(n) value, the fractional seconds are truncated to fit. The following code shows the results of converting a datetimeoffset(4) value to a datetime2(3) value.

DECLARE @datetimeoffset DATETIMEOFFSET(4) = '1912-10-25 12:24:32.1277 +10:0';
DECLARE @datetime2 DATETIME2(3) = @datetimeoffset;

SELECT @datetimeoffset AS '@datetimeoffset', @datetime2 AS '@datetime2';

Here's the result set.

@datetimeoffset                    @datetime2
---------------------------------- ----------------------
1912-10-25 12:24:32.1277 +10:00    1912-10-25 12:24:32.12

Convert string literals to datetimeoffset

Conversions from string literals to date and time types are permitted if all parts of the strings are in valid formats. Otherwise, a runtime error is raised. Implicit conversions or explicit conversions that don't specify a style, from date and time types to string literals are in the default format of the current session. The following table shows the rules for converting a string literal to the datetimeoffset data type.

Related content

• CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)
• AT TIME ZONE (Transact-SQL)