How to compare software versions using SQL Server?

Question

When trying to compare software versions 5.12 to 5.8, version 5.12 is newer, however mathematically 5.12 is less than 5.8. How would I compare the two versions so that a new

Answer 1

I encountered this when trying to filter SQL rows based on semantic versioning. My solution was a bit different, in that I wanted to store configuration rows tagged with a semantic version number and then select rows compatible with a running version of our software.

Assumptions:

• My software will include a configuration setting containing the current version number
• Data-driven configuration rows will include a min version number
• I need to be able to select configuration rows where min <= current.

Examples:

• Version 1.0.0 should include: 1.0.0, 1.0.0-*, 1.0.0-beta.1
• Version 1.0.0 should exclude: 1.0.1, 1.1.0, 2.0.0
• Version 1.1.0-beta.2 should include: 1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.1.0-beta.1, 1.1.0-beta.2
• Version 1.1.0-beta.2 should exclude: 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.2.0, 2.0.0, 1.1.1-beta.1

The MSSQL UDF is:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[SemanticVersion] (
    @Version nvarchar(50)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(255)

AS
BEGIN

    DECLARE @hyphen int = CHARINDEX('-', @version)
    SET @Version = REPLACE(@Version, '*', ' ')
    DECLARE 
        @left nvarchar(50) = CASE @hyphen WHEN 0 THEN @version ELSE SUBSTRING(@version, 1, @hyphen-1) END,
        @right nvarchar(50) = CASE @hyphen WHEN 0 THEN NULL ELSE SUBSTRING(@version, @hyphen+1, 50) END,
        @normalized nvarchar(255) = '',
        @buffer int = 8

    WHILE CHARINDEX('.', @left) > 0 BEGIN
        SET @normalized = @normalized + CASE ISNUMERIC(LEFT(@left, CHARINDEX('.', @left)-1))
            WHEN 0 THEN LEFT(@left, CHARINDEX('.', @left)-1)
            WHEN 1 THEN REPLACE(STR(LEFT(@left, CHARINDEX('.', @left)-1), @buffer), SPACE(1), '0')
        END  + '.'
        SET @left = SUBSTRING(@left, CHARINDEX('.', @left)+1, 50)
    END
    SET @normalized = @normalized + CASE ISNUMERIC(@left)
        WHEN 0 THEN @left
        WHEN 1 THEN REPLACE(STR(@left, @buffer), SPACE(1), '0')
    END

    SET @normalized = @normalized + '-'
    IF (@right IS NOT NULL) BEGIN
        WHILE CHARINDEX('.', @right) > 0 BEGIN
            SET @normalized = @normalized + CASE ISNUMERIC(LEFT(@right, CHARINDEX('.', @right)-1))
                WHEN 0 THEN LEFT(@right, CHARINDEX('.', @right)-1)
                WHEN 1 THEN REPLACE(STR(LEFT(@right, CHARINDEX('.', @right)-1), @buffer), SPACE(1), '0')
            END  + '.'
            SET @right = SUBSTRING(@right, CHARINDEX('.', @right)+1, 50)
        END
        SET @normalized = @normalized + CASE ISNUMERIC(@right)
            WHEN 0 THEN @right
            WHEN 1 THEN REPLACE(STR(@right, @buffer), SPACE(1), '0')
        END
    END ELSE 
        SET @normalized = @normalized + 'zzzzzzzzzz'

    RETURN @normalized

END

SQL tests include:

SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-alpha') < dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-alpha.1') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-alpha.1') < dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-alpha.beta') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-alpha.beta') < dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-beta') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-beta') < dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-beta.2') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-beta.2') < dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-beta.11') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-beta.11') < dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-rc.1') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-rc.1') < dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END


SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END

SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0-*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.1-*') > dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.1-*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.1') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.1.*') > dbo.SemanticVersion('1.0.9') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.1.*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('1.2.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('2.0.0') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('1.*') > dbo.SemanticVersion('0.9.9-beta-219') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END
SELECT CASE WHEN dbo.SemanticVersion('*') <= dbo.SemanticVersion('0.0.1-alpha-1') THEN 'Success' ELSE 'Failure' END