SQL: Don't use abbreviations in T-SQL datetime intervals

I don’t like seeing abbreviations used when there’s no need to have them. Abbreviations can be overused and many times they’re cryptic. Worse, I often see them applied inconsistently.

In general, I try to avoid abbreviations unless they are on a tight list of ones that I use all the time.

A pet dislike of mine is seeing them used (even if consistently) for interval values in T-SQL functions like DATEADD, DATEDIFF, etc.

In the list above, please use the name of the interval rather than the abbreviation. Don’t have people wondering if:

DATEADD(w, 2, SYSDATETIME())

means “week” or “weekday”, or if “m” means “minute” or “millisecond”.

If you mean “week”, just write this:

DATEADD(week, 2, SYSDATETIME())

And if you mean “weekday”, just write this:

DATEADD(weekday, 2, SYSDATETIME())

At least you’ll remove all doubt about what you meant.

Make your code easy to read and understand.

2020-02-18