title: When using GETDATE() in many places, is it better to use a variable?
body: <p>By better, I mean does it improve performance by some non-marginal amount?</p>
  
  <p>That is to say, each time I call <code>GETDATE()</code>, what amount of <em>work</em> does the server do to return that value?</p>
  
  <p>If I'm using <code>GETDATE()</code> in many places in a stored procedure, should I instead be creating a variable to store the date of the transaction?</p>
  
  <pre><code>declare @transDate datetime = GETDATE()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Bench-marking data would be fantastic. </p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong> I want to clarify: I'm interested mainly in the actual performance differences between these two possibilities, and whether or not it is significant. </p>