Why is dates so difficult?

[Jan Steyn]

DECLARE @Month VARCHAR(2), @Year VARCHAR(4)
IF (month(GETDATE())) = 1
BEGIN
Set @Month = MONTH(DateAdd(month, -1, GETDATE()));
Set @Year = YEAR(DateAdd(month, -1, GETDATE()));
END
ELSE
BEGIN
Set @Month = MONTH(GETDATE()) -1
Set @Year = YEAR(GETDATE())
END

I just shook my head... It could have been done as easily as:

DECLARE @Month VARCHAR(2), @Year VARCHAR(4)
Set @Month = MONTH(DateAdd(month, -1, GETDATE()));
Set @Year = YEAR(DateAdd(month, -1, GETDATE()));

[AspDotNetDev]

Better yet:

DECLARE @Month varchar(2), @Year varchar(4), @LastMonth datetime
SET @LastMonth = DateAdd(MONTH, -1, GetDate())
SET @Month = Month(@LastMonth)
SET @Year = Year(@LastMonth)

EOL

[John Hunley]

A better question is, why are grammar so difficult?

[Florin Jurcovici 0]

You mean, why is grammars for naturals language so difficults, right? ;P Well, one explanation could be that the speaker is not a native speaker. But I agree, I'm annoyed by bad grammar too.