Ever needed to filter a report so it only shows data starting from the beginning of the current week? In SQL Server, calculating the date for "this past Monday" is a classic challenge that every dev faces eventually.
While there are many ways to do it, the most efficient method uses a clever combination of DATEDIFF and DATEADD.
The Logic: How It Works
The secret sauce is calculating the number of weeks that have passed since "Day 0" (which is 1900-01-01, a Monday) and then adding those weeks back to that same starting point.
Here is the cleanest way to write it:
-- Using the 'WK' shorthand
SELECT DATEADD(WK, DATEDIFF(WK, 0, GETDATE()), 0) AS MondayOfCurrentWeek;
-- Or using the full 'WEEK' keyword for readability
SELECT DATEADD(WEEK, DATEDIFF(WEEK, 0, GETDATE()), 0) AS MondayOfCurrentWeek;
Both queries will return the exact date of Monday for the current week (e.g., 2026-04-13).
Getting Other Days of the Week
The beauty of this snippet is its flexibility. If you need to find Tuesday, Wednesday, or any other day, you don't need to rewrite the logic—you just need to shift the "anchor" value (the 0 in the formula).
By incrementing the integer, you move the target day forward:
-- Tuesday
SELECT DATEADD(WK, DATEDIFF(WK, 0, GETDATE()), 1) AS Tuesday;
-- Wednesday
SELECT DATEADD(WK, DATEDIFF(WK, 0, GETDATE()), 2) AS Wednesday;
-- Thursday
SELECT DATEADD(WK, DATEDIFF(WK, 0, GETDATE()), 3) AS Thursday;
