Compare a date string to datetime in SQL Server?

Technique 1:

 DECLARE @p_date DATETIME
 SET     @p_date = CONVERT( DATETIME, '14 AUG 2008', 106 )

 SELECT  *
 FROM    table1
 WHERE   column_datetime >= @p_date
 AND     column_datetime < DATEADD(d, 1, @p_date)

The advantage of this is that it will use any index on ‘column_datetime’ if it exists.