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SELECT <a href="https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189463.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396" rel="ugc">TOP(1)</a> Orderdate FROM Orders
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I think that this depends on the precision of your Order time and what sort of time interval you want to group by. If you're using a datetime datatype and the system records to milliseconds, the data is possibly not very helpful, But if you grouped into a larger interval and counted the number, you'd get a more meaningful result.<br />
<br />
<br />
Kelvin
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I would like to group by from 1am - 5am, 5:00 -- 7am, 7am -- 9am,9am -- 12pm, 12pm-- 3pm,3pm - 6pm,6pm--9pm,9pm--12am
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I get the following data<br />

<pre><code class="code-10 nolinks" id="code-20-41418691-1"><span>Hour    Orders</span>
<span>0	286</span>
<span>1	88</span>
<span>2	48</span>
<span>3	24</span>
<span>4	24</span>
<span>5	74</span>
<span>6	278</span>
<span>7	722</span>
<span>8	1356</span>
<span>9	3013</span>
<span>10	3636</span>
<span>11	3901</span>
<span>12	3801</span>
<span>13	3703</span>
<span>14	3724</span>
<span>15	4059</span>
<span>16	3722</span>
<span>17	3201</span>
<span>18	2433</span>
<span>19	2615</span>
<span>20	3192</span>
<span>21	3237</span>
<span>22	2185</span>
<span>23	937</span>
</code></pre>
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That's a count orders by hour. i.e. 0 is from midnight to 1 am.<br />
You now need to consider how you want that further broken down (by Year, Month etc...). The n we can look at the grouping you suggested.
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
how would I get most popular sales time. Orderdate is dateTime field<br />
<br />
Select orderdate <br />
FROM Orders
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</div>


how would I get most popular sales time. Orderdate is dateTime field

Select orderdate 
FROM Orders

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