| Function | Result | Return type |
|---|---|---|
| GETDATE() | 2013-02-26 20:54:24.057 | DATETIME |
| CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | 2013-02-26 20:54:24.057 | DATETIME |
| GETUTCDATE() | 2013-02-26 20:09:17.467 | DATETIME |
| SYSDATETIME() | 2013-02-26 21:09:17.4680514 | DATETIME2 |
| SYSUTCDATETIME() | 2013-02-26 20:09:17.4680514 | DATETIME2 |
| SYSDATETIMEOFFSET() | 2013-02-26 21:09:17.4680514 +01:00 | DATETIMEOFFSET |
UTC means Coordinated Universal Time and is widely used as time standard in web applications. The result above were taken on a PC with the time zone (UTC+01:00). Note that the UTC functions return the time one hour before the rest.
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is the recommended one as it is the ANSI equivalent of GETDATE()
Don't forget that if you only need the current DATE or TIME, you can cast the return of the above functions to a DATE or TIME
Example:
SELECT CAST(GETDATE() as DATE)
which will return
2013-02-26
For all DateTime functions visit the following link
