Have you ever needed to retrieve the month names in a specific order in SQL Server? In this article, we will explore a solution to this problem and discuss different approaches to achieve the desired result.

The Problem

Imagine you are working on a SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) project and you need to create a report that displays the monthly status of the stock list in your company. The report should have two parameters: Month and Year. The Year parameter should list all the years from the first date in the table to the current year. The Month parameter should list all the months in a year, ordered correctly.

The Solution

There are multiple ways to retrieve the month names in order, depending on your preferences and requirements. Let’s explore a few approaches:

Static Approach

One way to achieve the desired result is by using a static approach. This involves creating a table variable and inserting the values 1, 2, 3, …, 12 into the table variable. Then, you can select the month names based on these values. While this approach works, it requires manual intervention and is not very flexible or reusable.

Date Range Approach

Another approach is to use a date range and extract the month names between two specific dates. For example, you can retrieve the month names between 01-Jan-1900 and 01-Dec-1900. However, ordering the months correctly can be a challenge with this approach.

Recursive Common Table Expression (CTE)

After exploring different options, I stumbled upon a solution that utilizes a recursive common table expression (CTE). This approach allows us to generate the month numbers by adding the month number + 1 recursively up to 12. Then, we can convert the month numbers to month names using the DATENAME function explicitly. This ensures that the month names are ordered correctly.

Implementation

Here is an example query that demonstrates the recursive CTE approach:

WITH CTE_Months AS (
    SELECT 1 AS MonthNumber
    UNION ALL
    SELECT MonthNumber + 1
    FROM CTE_Months
    WHERE MonthNumber < 12
)
SELECT DATENAME(MONTH, DATEADD(MONTH, MonthNumber - 1, '1900-01-01')) AS MonthName
FROM CTE_Months
ORDER BY MonthNumber

I recommend creating this query as a view or a stored procedure to ensure reusability. If your client requires only the first three characters of the month name in uppercase, you can easily modify the stored procedure using the SUBSTRING or LEFT and UPPER functions to return the desired values.

Conclusion

Retrieving the month names in a specific order can be a common requirement in SQL Server projects. By utilizing a recursive CTE, we can generate the month numbers and convert them to month names in the desired order. This approach provides a flexible and reusable solution for displaying month names in various scenarios.

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you found it helpful in understanding how to get month names in order in SQL Server. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below.