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

You can create a function and then refer to it in the select statement. The function may look similar to this:

if OBJECT_ID('fn_month_name_to_number', 'IF') is not null
drop function fn_month_name_to_number
go
create function fn_month_name_to_number (@monthname varchar(25))
returns int as
begin
declare @monthno as int;
select @monthno =
case @monthname
when 'January' then 1
when 'February' then 2
when 'March' then 3
when 'April' then 4
when 'May' then 5
when 'June' then 6
when 'July' then 7
when 'August' then 8
when 'September' then 9
when 'October' then 10
when 'November' then 11
when 'December' then 12
end
return @monthno
end

Then you can query it.

select fn_month_name_to_number ('February') as month_no

This query will return 2 as month number. You can pass values from a column as parameters to the function.

select fn_month_name_to_number (*columnname*) as month_no from *tablename*

Have a good day!