<?php
$server = 'localhost\SQLEXPRESS';
$database = 'MyDatabase';
$username = 'MyUsername';
$password = 'MyPassword';

$sql = 'SELECT CAST('2017-01-31' AS DATE) AS [Col1]';

// Microsoft driver
$conn = sqlsrv_connect($server,
                       ['UID' => $username, 'PWD' => $password, 'Database' => $database,]);
$statement = sqlsrv_prepare($conn, $sql);
sqlsrv_execute($statement);
while ($row = sqlsrv_fetch_array($statement, SQLSRV_FETCH_ASSOC)) {
    var_dump($row);
}
/*
array (size=1)
  'Col1' =>
    object(DateTime)[2]
      public 'date' => string '2017-01-31 00:00:00.000000' (length=26)
      public 'timezone_type' => int 3
      public 'timezone' => string 'Australia/Canberra' (length=18)
*/

// PDO
$pdo_conn = new PDO("sqlsrv:Server={$server};Database={$database}", $username, $password);
foreach ($pdo_conn->query($sql) as $row) {
    var_dump($row);
}
/*
array (size=2)
  'Col1' => string '2017-01-31' (length=10)
  0 => string '2017-01-31' (length=10)
*/