Storing just Month and Year in SQL Server 2008?

Question

Is it possible to save the month/year in SQL Server 2008 with a regular datetime? I don't need a time stamp and the column is going to store unique mo/yr combinations (i.e. 10-11, 11-11, 12-11, etc,.).

Any recommendations?

Answer 1

Without knowing the intended use, it is not possible to advise correctly. However, storing month and year is easily done in at least three ways:

• use a date field, but always store into it the first day of the month at midnight; then always custom format the date field for display
• add integer year and month fields, and populate them by splitting a date
• add an integer field where you encode it as year * 100 + month or some other useful scheme