dates before 1950 equate future date

Question

I need to convert my string date to datetime type.

Here's one date scenario:

'19-Apr-36'

DECLARE @strDate VARCHAR(25)
SELECT @strDate = '19-Apr-36'

SELECT CAST(@strDate as datetime)

results in a future date of 2036-04-19

how is this normally handled and what other caveats are there?

Answer 1

SQL Server interprets the year 36 as in the current century by default. You'll need to explicitly state 1936 or change the two digit year cutoff option.

Edit: Just to clarify - you don't want to change the setting as it's serverwide and will cause more confusion than it'll help you. Go with explicit dates preferably.

Answer 2

You can set the year when the century changes like that

sp_configure 'two digit year cutoff', 2070
reconfigure