Question : Date to String Conversion

Does anyone know why this won't work in Sybase but works in MS SQl

I have an Stored Procedure.  I want to get the current month end from a string and return the value as a string '20080429'

So I pass in string '20080429'
and it returns a string '20080430'
This is want I've written but it doesn't work....

CREATE PROCEDURE Caoimhe @value_dt varchar(8)
as
declare @current_monthend varchar(8)
declare @monthend varchar(8)
select @monthend = CONVERT( varchar(8), dateadd(day, -1,dateadd(month, 1,convert(datetime,left(@value_dt,6) + '01',112))), 112)

return @monthend

Answer : Date to String Conversion

Assuming ASE.  Please confirm which Sybase product and version you are using.

It works fine for me...

begin
declare @value_dt varchar(8)
set @value_dt = '20080423'
select CONVERT( varchar(8), dateadd(day, -1,dateadd(month, 1,convert(datetime,left(@value_dt,6) + '01',112))), 112)
end

Returns "20080430"

Oh, I see what the issue is.  You are trying to use the RETURN statement to get the output value.  That is a no-no for stored procedures.  You really need to use a stored function.

ASE v15 supports T-SQL function and the CREATE FUNCTION syntax.  You are trying to use the CREATE PROCEDURE syntax.  With a procedure, any return value other than 0 is seen as an error.

If you are using a version of Sybase prior to 15, you do not have the function syntax available to you.  You have one or two choices: you can call the procedure with the @monthend as and OUTPUT argument or, if you have it licensed, you can create a Java SQL function that will do what you want as well.

Regards,
Bill