WAITFOR DELAY

WAITFOR DELAY is a SQL statement in the SQL Server Specific category. SQL Server: delays execution for a specified time interval. The syntax is WAITFOR DELAY 'hh:mm:ss';. It returns none (delay). A typical example: WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:05'; -- Wait 5 seconds WAITFOR TIME '22:00:00'; -- Wait until 10 PM to execute SELECT GETDATE(); -- Used for scheduling, rate limiting, debugging A close relative is OUTPUT Clause, which sQL Server: returns values from DML statements (like PostgreSQL RETURNING). A close relative is STUFF(), which sQL Server: deletes a specified length of characters from a string and inserts another string at the start position. A close relative is FOR XML PATH, which sQL Server: converts query results to XML format. Commonly used for string concatenation hack. More about this category: SQL Server-specific features — T-SQL, OUTPUT, TOP, PIVOT, STUFF, FOR XML. Related SQL Server Specific entries: OUTPUT Clause, STUFF(), FOR XML PATH, TRY...CATCH, @@IDENTITY / SCOPE_IDENTITY(), GETDATE() / SYSDATETIME(), STRING_SPLIT(), TOP ... WITH TIES.