title: Validating Date Parameter in SQL Server Stored Procedure
body: <p>I've written a stored procedure that takes in a date parameter. My concern is that there will be confusion between <code>American</code> and <code>British</code> date formats. What is the best way to ensure that there is no ambiguity between dates such as <code>02/12/2008</code>. One possibility would be for users to enter a date in a format such as <code>20081202 (yyyymmdd)</code>. Is there any way to validate that without using sub strings? Alternatively dates could be entered as <code>02-Dec-2008(dd-mmm-yyyy)</code>, but again verification is not trivial and there are potential issues with users who do not use English.</p>
  
  <p>Further to the first three answers . . . One issue is that I'm expecting this stored proc to be called directly without a front end so validation ouside of the proc is not an option. Is it a good idea to take the day, month and year as separate parameters?</p>