Convert month name to month number in SQL Server

Question

In T-SQL what is the best way to convert a month name into a number?

E.g:

\'January\' -> 1
\'February\' -> 2
\'March\' -> 3

Answer 1

How about this?

select DATEPART(MM,'january 01 2011') -- returns 1
select DATEPART(MM,'march 01 2011')  -- returns 3
select DATEPART(MM,'august 01 2011') -- returns 8