title: Set a DateTime database field to "Now"
body: <p>In VB.net code, I create requests with SQL parameters. It I set a DateTime parameter to the value DateTime.Now, what will my request look like ?</p>
  
  <pre><code>UPDATE table SET date = "2010/12/20 10:25:00";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>or</p>
  
  <pre><code>UPDATE table SET date = GETDATE();
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the first case I'm sure that every record will be set to the exact same time. In the second case it depends on how the DBMS processes the request. Which leads me to the second question : does SQL Server set the same date and time when updating a large table with NOW() ?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT :</strong> replaced NOW() (which doesn't exist in SQL Server) by GETDATE().</p>