Good info. But i think u have missed :

select {fn NOW()}

We have a function which will returns the date & time in required format.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[ufsFormat]
(
@Date datetime,
@fORMAT VARCHAR(80)
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(80)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @Dateformat INT
DECLARE @ReturnedDate VARCHAR(80)
DECLARE @TwelveHourClock INT
DECLARE @Before INT
DECLARE @pos INT
DECLARE @Escape INT

SELECT @ReturnedDate=’error! unrecognised format ‘+@format
SELECT @DateFormat=CASE @format
WHEN ‘mmm dd yyyy hh:mm AM/PM’ THEN 100
WHEN ‘mm/dd/yy’ THEN 1
WHEN ‘mm/dd/yyyy’ THEN 101
WHEN ‘yy.mm.dd’ THEN 2
WHEN ‘dd/mm/yy’ THEN 3
WHEN ‘dd.mm.yy’ THEN 4
WHEN ‘dd-mm-yy’ THEN 5
WHEN ‘dd Mmm yy’ THEN 6
WHEN ‘Mmm dd, yy’ THEN 7
WHEN ‘hh:mm:ss’ THEN 8
WHEN ‘yyyy.mm.dd’ THEN 102
WHEN ‘dd/mm/yyyy’ THEN 103
WHEN ‘dd.mm.yyyy’ THEN 104
WHEN ‘dd-mm-yyyy’ THEN 105
WHEN ‘dd Mmm yyyy’ THEN 106
WHEN ‘Mmm dd, yyyy’ THEN 107
WHEN ‘Mmm dd yyyy hh:mm:ss:ms AM/PM’ THEN 9
WHEN ‘Mmm dd yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmm AM/PM’ THEN 9
WHEN ‘Mmm dd yy hh:mm:ss:ms AM/PM’ THEN 109
WHEN ‘mm-dd-yy’ THEN 10
WHEN ‘mm-dd-yyyy’ THEN 110
WHEN ‘yy/mm/dd’ THEN 11
WHEN ‘yyyy/mm/dd’ THEN 111
WHEN ‘yymmdd’ THEN 12
WHEN ‘yyyymmdd’ THEN 112
WHEN ‘dd Mmm yyyy hh:mm:ss:Ms’ THEN 113
WHEN ‘hh:mm:ss:Ms’ THEN 14
WHEN ‘yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss’ THEN 120
WHEN ‘yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.Ms’ THEN 121
WHEN ‘yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.Ms’ THEN 126
WHEN ‘dd Mmm yyyy hh:mm:ss:ms AM/PM’ THEN 130
WHEN ‘dd/mm/yy hh:mm:ss:ms AM/PM’ THEN 131
WHEN ‘RFC822′ THEN -2
WHEN ‘dd Mmm yyyy hh:mm’ THEN -4
ELSE -1 END
SELECT @ReturnedDate=’error! unrecognised format ‘ +@format+CONVERT(VARCHAR(10),@DateFormat)
IF @DateFormat>=0
SELECT @ReturnedDate=CONVERT(VARCHAR(80),@Date,@DateFormat)
–check for favourite and custom formats that can be done quickly
ELSE IF @DateFormat=-2–then it is RFC822 format
SELECT @ReturnedDate=LEFT(DATENAME(dw, @Date),3) + ‘, ‘ + STUFF(CONVERT(NVARCHAR,@Date,113),21,4,’ GMT’)
ELSE IF @DateFormat=-4–then it is european day format with minutes
SELECT @ReturnedDate=CONVERT(CHAR(17),@Date,113)
ELSE
BEGIN
SELECT @Before=LEN(@format)
SELECT @Format=REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE( @Format,’AM/PM’,'#’),’AM’,'#’),’PM’,'#’)
SELECT @TwelveHourClock=CASE WHEN @Before >LEN(@format) THEN 109 ELSE 113 END, @ReturnedDate=”
WHILE (1=1)–forever
BEGIN
SELECT @pos=PATINDEX(‘%[yqmidwhs:#]%’,@format+’ ‘)
IF @pos=0–no more date format strings
BEGIN
SELECT @ReturnedDate=@ReturnedDate+@format
BREAK
END
IF @pos>1–some stuff to pass through first
BEGIN
SELECT @escape=CHARINDEX (‘\’,@Format+’\') –is it a literal character that is escaped?
IF @escape<@pos BEGIN
SET @ReturnedDate=@ReturnedDate+SUBSTRING(@Format,1,@escape-1) +SUBSTRING(@format,@escape+1,1)
SET @format=RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@Format,@Escape+2,80))
CONTINUE
END
SET @ReturnedDate=@ReturnedDate+SUBSTRING(@Format,1,@pos-1)
SET @format=RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@Format,@pos,80))
END
SELECT @pos=PATINDEX(‘%[^yqmidwhs:#]%’,@format+’ ‘)–get the end
SELECT @ReturnedDate=@ReturnedDate+–’(‘+substring(@Format,1,@pos-1)+’)'+
CASE SUBSTRING(@Format,1,@pos-1)
–Mmmths as 1–12
WHEN ‘M’ THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(2),DATEPART(MONTH,@Date))
–Mmmths as 01–12
WHEN ‘Mm’ THEN CONVERT(CHAR(2),@Date,101)
–Mmmths as Jan–Dec
WHEN ‘Mmm’ THEN CONVERT(CHAR(3),DATENAME(MONTH,@Date))
–Mmmths as January–December
WHEN ‘Mmmm’ THEN DATENAME(MONTH,@Date)
–Mmmths as the first letter of the Mmmth
WHEN ‘Mmmmm’ THEN CONVERT(CHAR(1),DATENAME(MONTH,@Date))
–Days as 1–31
WHEN ‘D’ THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(2),DATEPART(DAY,@Date))
–Days as 01–31
WHEN ‘Dd’ THEN CONVERT(CHAR(2),@date,103)
–Days as Sun–Sat
WHEN ‘Ddd’ THEN CONVERT(CHAR(3),DATENAME(weekday,@Date))
–Days as Sunday–Saturday
WHEN ‘Dddd’ THEN DATENAME(weekday,@Date)
–Years as 00–99
WHEN ‘Yy’ THEN CONVERT(CHAR(2),@Date,12)
–Years as 1900–9999
WHEN ‘Yyyy’ THEN DATENAME(YEAR,@Date)
WHEN ‘hh:mm:ss’ THEN SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30),@date,@TwelveHourClock),13,8)
WHEN ‘hh:mm:ss:ms’ THEN SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30),@date,@TwelveHourClock),13,12)
WHEN ‘h:mm:ss’ THEN SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30),@date,@TwelveHourClock),13,8)
–the SQL Server BOL syntax, for compatibility
WHEN ‘hh:mi:ss:mmm’ THEN SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30),@date,@TwelveHourClock),13,12)
WHEN ‘h:mm:ss:ms’ THEN SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30),@date,@TwelveHourClock),13,12)
WHEN ‘H:m:s’ THEN SUBSTRING(REPLACE(‘:’+SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30), @Date,@TwelveHourClock),13,8),’:0′,’:'),2,30)
WHEN ‘H:m:s:ms’ THEN SUBSTRING(REPLACE(‘:’+SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30), @Date,@TwelveHourClock),13,12),’:0′,’:'),2,30)
–Hours as 00–23
WHEN ‘hh’ THEN REPLACE(SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30), @Date,@TwelveHourClock),13,2),’ ‘,’0′)
–Hours as 0–23
WHEN ‘h’ THEN LTRIM(SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR(30), @Date,@TwelveHourClock),13,2))
–Minutes as 00–59
WHEN ‘Mi’ THEN DATENAME(minute,@date)
WHEN ‘mm’ THEN DATENAME(minute,@date)
WHEN ‘m’ THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(2),DATEPART(minute,@date))
–Seconds as 0–59
WHEN ’ss’ THEN DATENAME(second,@date)
–Seconds as 0–59
WHEN ‘S’ THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(2),DATEPART(second,@date))
–AM/PM
WHEN ‘ms’ THEN DATENAME(millisecond,@date)
WHEN ‘mmm’ THEN DATENAME(millisecond,@date)
WHEN ‘dy’ THEN DATENAME(dy,@date)
WHEN ‘qq’ THEN DATENAME(qq,@date)
WHEN ‘ww’ THEN DATENAME(ww,@date)
WHEN ‘#’ THEN REVERSE(SUBSTRING(REVERSE(CONVERT(CHAR(26), @date,109)),1,2))
ELSE
SUBSTRING(@Format,1,@pos-1)
END
SET @format=RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@Format,@pos,80))
END END
RETURN @ReturnedDate

Hope the above function will help you.

We have something called styles in convert function, you can use them to get the desired output for datetime column,

this will be written like this,

select (convert (varchar(10), column_name , style_no)

These are the styles that are available in Sql Server,

Style ID Style Type

0 or 100 (*) mon dd yyyy hh:miAM (or PM)
101 mm/dd/yyyy
102 yy.mm.dd
103 dd/mm/yy
104 dd.mm.yy
105 dd-mm-yy
106 dd mon yy
107 Mon dd, yy
108 hh:mm:ss
9 or 109 (*) mon dd yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM (or PM)
110 mm-dd-yy
111 yy/mm/dd
112 yymmdd
13 or 113 (*) dd mon yyyy hh:mm:ss:mmm(24h)
114 hh:mi:ss:mmm(24h)
20 or 120 (*) yyyy-mm-dd hh:mi:ss(24h)
21 or 121 (*) yyyy-mm-dd hh:mi:ss.mmm(24h)
126(***) yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.mmm(no spaces)
130* dd mon yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM
131* dd/mm/yy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM

to know more about this, read “convert” in books online.

Your example :

select convert (varchar(10), getdate(), 101)

result : 08/01/2008

Hope this helps,
Thanks,

Can we get the System Date format. For ex. Suppose any body having the system date format is MM/DD/YYYY. Now we need get this Format MM/DD/YYYY. If DD/MM/YYYY means, we need to get the Format DD/MM/YYYY. is it possible?

Regards
Sachin