Generate Dates between date ranges

Question

Easy on SQL 2005+; easier if you have a numbers or tally table. I faked it below:

DECLARE @StartDate DATE = '20110901'
  , @EndDate DATE = '20111001'

SELECT  DATEADD(DAY, nbr - 1, @StartDate)
FROM    ( SELECT    ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( ORDER BY c.object_id ) AS nbr
          FROM      sys.columns c
        ) nbrs
WHERE   nbr - 1 <= DATEDIFF(DAY, @StartDate, @EndDate)

If you have a tally table, replace the subquery with the table. No recursion.

Try this if you are using SQL Server 2005 or newer:

WITH Dates AS (
        SELECT
         [Date] = CONVERT(DATETIME,'09/01/2011')
        UNION ALL SELECT
         [Date] = DATEADD(DAY, 1, [Date])
        FROM
         Dates
        WHERE
         Date < '10/10/2011'
) SELECT
 [Date]
FROM
 Dates
 OPTION (MAXRECURSION 45)

A good example of cool stuff you can do with a CTE.

-- Declarations

DECLARE @dates TABLE(dt datetime)    
DECLARE @dateFrom datetime
DECLARE @dateTo datetime

SET @dateFrom = '2001/01/01'
SET @dateTo = '2001/01/12'

-- Query:

WHILE(@dateFrom < @dateTo)
BEGIN
   SELECT @dateFrom = DATEADD(day, 1,@dateFrom)
   INSERT INTO @dates 
   SELECT @dateFrom
END

-- Output

SELECT * FROM @dates

Here is a solution that does not require recursion, and at the same time, this table-valued function is re-usable in many queries without the need to repeat the declaration of boilerplate variables again. This is the only alternative, for those who don't want recursion.

Create this simple function:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[GenerateDateRange]
(@StartDate AS DATE,
 @EndDate AS   DATE,
 @Interval AS  INT
)
RETURNS @Dates TABLE(DateValue DATE)
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @CUR_DATE DATE
    SET @CUR_DATE = @StartDate
    WHILE @CUR_DATE <= @EndDate BEGIN
        INSERT INTO @Dates VALUES(@CUR_DATE)
        SET @CUR_DATE = DATEADD(DAY, @Interval, @CUR_DATE)
    END
    RETURN;
END;

And then select by:

select *
from dbo.GenerateDateRange('2017-01-03', '2017-12-01', 1)

I realize that this is an old thread, but I have to admit my dismay at the overabundance of recursive and looping solutions given here. I wonder just how many folks realize that recursion is nothing more than a very expensive loop? I understand the desire to create a Table-Valued Function, but I suggest that the following is far more efficient as it is set-based, without looping, recursion, or repeated single insert statements:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.GenerateDateRange(@StartDate AS DATE, @EndDate AS DATE)
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
    WITH e1(n) AS (VALUES (1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1)) AS x(n)) -- 16 records
        ,e2(n) AS (SELECT 1 FROM e1 a CROSS JOIN e1 b) -- 16^2 or 256 records (16*16)
        ,cteTally(n) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() over (ORDER BY 1) AS n FROM e2 a CROSS JOIN e2 b) -- 16^4 or 65,536 records (256*256)
    SELECT DATEADD(DAY, n-1, @StartDate)
    FROM cteTally
    WHERE n <= DATEDIFF(DAY, @StartDate, @EndDate) + 1;
GO

Use MVJ's F_TABLE_DATE function, it is purely awesome:

http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=61519

Once you implement this just pass in start and end date and you can insert all dates between.