Is it possible to check a date in SQL?

Question

I'm trying to write a Microsoft SQL Server stored procedure which takes an account ID, and returns an authentication ticket and whether the ticket is expired.

Something like this:

SELECT Authentication.ticket, Authentication.TicketExpires < getDate()
FROM Authentication WHERE Authentication.accountID = @id

The purpose is to return a row with two columns - the ticket, and a bit field (0 or 1) telling me whether the ticket is expired. This bit field isn't part of the table, the ticketExpires column is SMALLDATETIME.

Does anyone know the correct syntax for this?

Answer 1

I think this achieves what you're looking for. Hope this helps.

 SELECT
      Authentication.Ticket
      , CAST(CASE
           WHEN Authentication.TicketExpires < GetDate() THEN 1
           ELSE 0
      END AS bit) AS 'IsExpired'
 FROM Authentication
 WHERE Authentication.accountID = @id

Answer 2

Is the information on this page any use?

It looks like you'll have to write something like the following:

select  cast(datediff(s,Authentication.TicketExpires,getdate()) as bit) from ...

This will return a 1 if the ticket expiry date is in the future, and a 0 if it is exactly now or in the past.

Answer 3

Most database systems have built in functions for things like this. In MySQL, you would use NOW() for example. A quick Google for "Date and time functions MS SQL Server" got me to a page that says the function GETDATE() will return a DATETIME of the current system timestamp. I'm not sure if you can compare a SMALLDATETIME to a DATETIME, though.

Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188383.aspx