How To Create A Date Table

Many times when developing SQL Server databases you have the requirement to show all dates in a range. One way to do this is with a date table. One of the most common reasons that I use a date table is when I have a reconciliation report. In a reconciliation report I want to show all of the days in a date range, even if they don’t have data on those days. SQL Server doesn’t have a function to generate dates in a range. So to accomplish this, I create a date table using the following script.

CREATE
TABLE	DateTable
		(DateValue	DATETIME)

GO

DECLARE @StartDate		DATETIME = '01/01/2014'
DECLARE @NumberOfDays	INT = 3000

INSERT
INTO	DateTable
		(DateValue)
SELECT	DATEADD(DAY, RowNum, @StartDate) AS DateValue
FROM	(SELECT	TOP (@NumberOfDays)
				p1.PARAMETER_ID,
				ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY p1.PARAMETER_ID) - 1 AS RowNum
		 FROM	sys.all_parameters p1
		 CROSS	JOIN sys.all_parameters p2) NumberTable