Arithmetic overflow error

Question

Hi all,
The below is suppose to generate random dates but I receive the following error:
Msg 8115, Level 16, State 2, Line 7
Arithmetic overflow error converting expression to data type datetime.
SQL Below - if is this happening?
DECLARE
@MinDate INT, @MaxDate INT;
DECLARE
 @RANGE INT = DATEDIFF(DD, @MinDate, @MaxDate);
SET @MaxDate =20141212
SET @MinDate = 20140101
SELECT CONVERT(DATE, DATEADD(DD, ROUND(RAND(CAST(NEWID() AS VARBINARY)) * @RANGE,0,-1), @MinDate));

Answer 1

Reason is because you've declared variable as int. An integer value of 0 represents a base date of 19000101. SO maximum possible integer value you can convert to date is 2958463 which is why it throws error for values 20141212,20140101
etc
convert them to string and they all work fine
DECLARE
@MinDate INT, @MaxDate INT;
SET @MaxDate =20141212
SET @MinDate = 20140101
DECLARE
@RANGE INT = DATEDIFF(DD,CAST( @MinDate AS varchar(8)), CAST(@MaxDate AS varchar(8)));
SELECT CONVERT(DATE, DATEADD(DD, ROUND(RAND(CAST(NEWID() AS VARBINARY)) * @RANGE,0,-1), CAST(@MinDate AS varchar(8))));
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