The GETDATE is one of the most popular built-in methods of Microsoft SQL Server, but unlike its name suggests, it doesn't return just date, instead, it returns date with time information e.g. 2015-07-31 15:42:54.470, quite similar to our own java.util.Date from Java world. If you want just a date like 2015-07-31, or just a time like 15:42:54.470 then you need to either CAST or CONVERT output of GETDATE function into DATE or TIME data type. From SQL Server 2008 onward, apart from DATETIME, which is used to store both date and time, You also have a DATE data type to store data without time e.g. 2015-07-31, and a TIME data type to store time without any date information like 15:42:54.470.
