How can I query the database culture (SQL Server 2005)?

Question

How can I query the database culture (SQL Server 2005) ?

I have problems inserting and getting dates, because the client's servers don't run on the same culture as my developer server.

I can adjust the date, but I need to know the server's culture...

Answer 1

You can find out about the currently configured language using this:

SELECT @@language

and you might also want to check out this:

EXEC sp_helplanguage

It will show the available languages, and what date formats etc. they have. This is basically the contents of the sys.syslanguages system catalog table.

As for date handling - preferably use DateTime based parametrized queries, or if you have to have date strings, use the ISO-8601 date format in SQL Server.

The format YYYYMMDD or YYYYMMDD HH:MM:SS will always work, regardless of currently selected language settings in SQL Server.