{"id":256,"date":"2013-01-09T15:57:23","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T15:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/?p=256"},"modified":"2014-03-06T16:05:23","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T16:05:23","slug":"restore-sql-server-databases-using-datetime-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/restore-sql-server-databases-using-datetime-functions\/","title":{"rendered":"Restore SQL Server Databases using DateTime functions"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you take full backups using SQL Server maintenance plans and let SQL Server use the default naming convention, you have probably noticed that usually you’ll have file name in the format of “database name + backup + date + time + .bak”. For example, a backup from the master database may look like this: “master_backup_2012_10_02_220558_8601773.bak”.\u00a0 It can be a challenge to script out automatic restores because the numbers on the end of the backup name constantly change. In this tip I will explain how to script out RESTORE DATABASE statements using DateTime functions.<\/p>\n

Let’s say we have a folder full of backups like this:<\/p>\n

\"SQL<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s say our boss wants us to restore Monday’s production backup (Alabama) every Friday afternoon to our development database (Tide). To accomplish this task, we can use the built-in SQL Server DateTime functions.<\/p>\n

The below script will restore from the backup created on the first day of the current week.<\/strong>\u00a0 I’ve added comments to explain the code.<\/p>\n

\n
-- Declare variables\r\nDECLARE @backup nvarchar(200) \r\nDECLARE @datebegin datetime\r\nDECLARE @dateend datetime\r\n\r\n-- Initalize variables\r\n-- Set @datebegin equal to the first day of the current week\r\nSELECT @datebegin = DATEADD(wk,DATEDIFF(wk,0,GETDATE()),0)\r\n-- Set @dateend equal to the second day of the current week \r\nSELECT @dateend = DATEADD(wk,DATEDIFF(wk,0,GETDATE()),1) \r\n\r\n-- Set @backup equal to query dependent on datebegin and dateend \r\nSELECT TOP 1 @backup = name + '.bak' \r\nFROM msdb..backupset \r\nWHERE database_name = 'Alabama' \r\nAND backup_start_date BETWEEN @datebegin AND @dateend \r\nAND type = 'D' -- D is for full backups\r\nORDER BY backup_start_date ASC \r\n\r\nUSE [master]\r\n\r\n-- Put DB in Single_User Mode\r\nALTER DATABASE [Tide] SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE \r\n\r\n-- Restore DB using query from @backup variable\r\nRESTORE DATABASE [Tide] FROM  DISK = @backup WITH FILE = 1, NOUNLOAD, REPLACE, STATS = 5 \r\nGO<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
Below is a table of useful DateTime functions that you can use for the @datebegin and @dateend variables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Day<\/strong><\/td>\nSQL<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Today<\/td>\nSELECT GETDATE()<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Yesterday<\/td>\nSELECT DATEADD(d, -1, GETDATE())<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
First Day of Current Week<\/td>\nSELECT DATEADD(wk, DATEDIFF(wk, 0, GETDATE()), 0)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Last Day of the Current Week<\/td>\nSELECT DATEADD(wk, DATEDIFF(wk, 0, GETDATE()), 6)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
First Day of the Current Month<\/td>\nSELECT DATEADD(mm,DATEDIFF(mm,0,GETDATE()),0)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Last Day of the Current Month<\/td>\nSELECT DATEADD(ms,- 3,DATEADD(mm,0,DATEADD(mm,DATEDIFF(mm,0,GETDATE())+1,0)))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
First Day of the Current Year<\/td>\nSELECT DATEADD(yy,DATEDIFF(yy,0,GETDATE()),0)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Last Day of the Current Year<\/td>\nSELECT DATEADD(ms,-3,DATEADD(yy,0,DATEADD(yy,DATEDIFF(yy,0,GETDATE())+1,0)))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Another example may include where you need to take a backup from the first of the month of the production database and restore it weekly to the development database. In this situation you can edit the @datebegin and @dateend variables:<\/p>\n
--Set @datebegin equal to the first day of the current month\r\nSELECT @datebegin = DATEADD(mm,DATEDIFF(mm,0,GETDATE()),0) \r\n\r\n--Set @dateend equal to the second day of the current month\r\nSELECT @dateend = SELECT DATEADD(mm,DATEDIFF(mm,0,GETDATE()),1)<\/pre>\n
Click here to view the rest of this post.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you take full backups using SQL Server maintenance plans and let SQL Server use the default naming convention, you have probably noticed that usually you’ll have file name in the format of “database name + backup + date + time + .bak”. For example, a backup from the master database may look like this: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[14,59,62,40],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-backuprestore","tag-backuprestore","tag-development","tag-functions","tag-tsql"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}