Execute a T-SQL statement at a given time

The 'WAITFOR' command is used to delay the execution of a batch, stored procedure or transaction till a specified time duration or till an actual time. Let me demonstrate this:

Create a DELAY for a specific amount of time

USE NORTHWIND
WAITFOR DELAY '00:01:00'
BEGIN
SELECT CustomerID, CompanyName, ContactName FROM CUSTOMERS
END

Delays the execution of the T-Sql statement by 1 minute. To delay by an hour, you would use '01:00:00'. You can specify a maximum of 24 hours.

Execute at the given time (actual time)

USE NORTHWIND
WAITFOR TIME '11:23:00'
BEGIN
SELECT CustomerID, CompanyName, ContactName FROM CUSTOMERS
END

Delays the execution of the T-Sql statement till the time '11:23 A.M'. You cannot specify a date, only time is allowed.

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

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