datetime vs smalldatetime

Shimmy Weitzhandler picture Shimmy Weitzhandler · Nov 29, 2009 · Viewed 7.2k times · Source

If I don't care about less than seconds, what should be the recommended type to store my datetime values in sql-server 2005, is it datetime or smalldatetime or else?

Answer

Justin Grant picture Justin Grant · Nov 29, 2009

smalldatetime has a resolution down to one minute, so if that resoulution is OK for you, smalldatetime is 50% smaller (4 bytes vs. 8 bytes) so is preferred.

See http://karaszi.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-datetime-datatypes for a good overview.