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

Here is what I did by modifying some code I found on StackOverflow and writing some myself. This is version 1 of the code so please let me know what you think. Usage examples and test cases are in the code comments.

First create this function if not using SQL 2016 or greater and you do not have access to STRING_SPLIT:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author:      
-- Create date: 
-- Description: modified from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10914576/t-sql-split-string/42000063#42000063
-- =============================================
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitStringToRows]
(   
    @List VARCHAR(4000) 
    , @Delimiter VARCHAR(50)
)
RETURNS TABLE 
AS
RETURN 
(
    --For testing
    -- SELECT * FROM SplitStringToRows ('1.0.123','.')
    -- DECLARE @List VARCHAR(MAX) = '1.0.123', @Delimiter VARCHAR(50) = '.';

    WITH Casted AS
    (
        SELECT CAST(N'' + REPLACE((SELECT REPLACE(@List,@Delimiter,N'§§Split$me$here§§') AS [*] FOR XML PATH('')),N'§§Split$me$here§§',N'') + N'' AS XML) AS SplitMe
    )
    SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 0)) AS [Index]
    , x.value(N'.',N'nvarchar(max)') AS Part 
    FROM Casted
    CROSS APPLY SplitMe.nodes(N'/x') AS A(x)
)

Then create this function:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author:      Soenhay
-- Create date: 7/1/2017
-- Description: Returns -1 if VersionStringA is less than VersionStringB.
--              Returns 0 if VersionStringA equals VersionStringB.
--              Returns 1 if VersionSTringA is greater than VersionStringB.
-- =============================================
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.CompareVersionStrings
(   
    @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50)
    ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50)
)
RETURNS TABLE 
AS
RETURN 
(
    --CurrentVersion should be of the form:
    --major.minor[.build[.revision]] 
    --This is the same as the versioning system used in c#.
    --For applications the build and revision numbers will by dynamically set based on the current date and time of the build. 
    --Example: [assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.123.*")]//http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15505841/the-version-specified-for-the-file-version-is-not-in-the-normal-major-minor-b
    --Each component should be between 0 and 65534 ( UInt16.MaxValue - 1 )
    --Max version number would be 65534.65534.65534.65534

    --For Testing 
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('', '')
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('asdf.asdf', 'asdf.asdf') --returns 0
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('asdf', 'fdas') --returns -1 
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('zasdf', 'fdas') --returns 1 
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.0.123.123', '1.1.123.123')  --Should return -1
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.0.123.123', '1.0.123.123')  --Should return 0
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.1.123.123', '1.0.123.123')  --Should return 1
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.0.123.123', '1.0.124.123')  --Should return -1
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.0.124.123', '1.0.123.123')  --Should return 1
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.0.123.123', '1.0.123.124')  --Should return -1
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.0.123.124', '1.0.123.123')  --Should return 1
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.0', '1.1')  --Should return -1
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.0', '1.0')  --Should return 0
    -- SELECT * FROM dbo.CompareVersionStrings('1.1', '1.0')  --Should return 1
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '' ;
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '1.0.123.123' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '1.1.123.123' ;
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '1.1.123.123' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '1.1.123.123' ;
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '1.2.123.123' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '1.1.123.123' ;
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '1.1.123' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '1.1.123.123' ;
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '1.1.123.123' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '1.1.123' ;
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '1.1' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '1.1' ;
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '1.2' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '1.1' ;
    -- Declare @VersionStringA VARCHAR(50) = '1.1' ,@VersionStringB VARCHAR(50) = '1.2' ;

    WITH 
    Indexes AS
    (
        SELECT 1 AS [Index]
            , 'major' AS Name
        UNION
        SELECT 2
            , 'minor'
        UNION
        SELECT 3
            , 'build'
        UNION
        SELECT 4
            , 'revision'
    )
    , SplitA AS
    (
        SELECT * FROM dbo.SplitStringToRows(@VersionStringA, '.')
    )
    , SplitB AS
    (
        SELECT * FROM dbo.SplitStringToRows(@VersionStringB, '.')
    )
    SELECT
        CASE WHEN major = 0 THEN
                CASE WHEN minor = 0 THEN
                                    CASE WHEN build = 0 THEN
                                                        CASE WHEN revision = 0 THEN 0
                                                        ELSE revision END
                                        ELSE build END
                    ELSE minor END
            ELSE major END AS Compare
    FROM
    (
        SELECT 
             MAX(CASE WHEN [Index] = 1 THEN Compare ELSE NULL END) AS major
            ,MAX(CASE WHEN [Index] = 2 THEN Compare ELSE NULL END) AS minor
            ,MAX(CASE WHEN [Index] = 3 THEN Compare ELSE NULL END) AS build
            ,MAX(CASE WHEN [Index] = 4 THEN Compare ELSE NULL END) AS revision
        FROM(
            SELECT [Index], Name, 
                CASE WHEN A = B THEN 0
                    WHEN A < B THEN -1
                    WHEN A > B THEN 1
                    END AS Compare
            FROM
            (
                SELECT 
                     i.[Index]
                    ,i.Name
                    ,ISNULL(a.Part, 0) AS A
                    ,ISNULL(b.Part, 0) AS B
                FROM Indexes i
                    LEFT JOIN SplitA a
                ON  a.[Index] = i.[Index]
                    LEFT JOIN SplitB b
                ON  b.[Index] = i.[Index]
            ) q1
        ) q2
    ) q3

)
GO