Where can I find friendly strings for SQL Server versions?

Question

The friendly string for 9.00.4035.00 is SQL Server 2005 SP3 Express Edition. I would like to convert version numbers to string by accessing only registry or a dictionary. Can I find a list?

Answer 1

Steve Jones maintains build lists over at SQLServerCentral

The SQL2005 list is here

The SQL2008 list is here

Answer 2

You can use the SERVERPROPERTY (Transact-SQL) method.

EDIT 1:

And, I don't think you can get the whole string directly from the registry. You will have to gather the information from different registry hives. One, for example, is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\InstalledInstances.

Answer 3

This gives you a nice overview of all the version-related info in SQL Server:

SELECT  
    SERVERPROPERTY('productversion') as 'Product Version', 
    SERVERPROPERTY('productlevel') as 'Patch Level',  
    SERVERPROPERTY('edition') as 'Product Edition',
    SERVERPROPERTY('buildclrversion') as 'CLR Version',
    SERVERPROPERTY('collation') as 'Default Collation',
    SERVERPROPERTY('instancename') as 'Instance',
    SERVERPROPERTY('lcid') as 'LCID',
    SERVERPROPERTY('servername') as 'Server Name'

Output will be something like:

10.0.2531.0 SP1 Developer Edition (64-bit) v2.0.50727 
   Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL 1033 (machinename)

Marc

Answer 4

The Product Support KB page at How to identify your SQL Server version and edition has the 'official' version info for any build number released.