Detect Sql Express From TSQL - sql-server

Question

I need a safe (i.e consistent, robust) way of detecting whether or not the sql server I'm accessing is Sql Express. I think I'd prefer to be able to do this from TSQL, since I already have a connection string and all the libraries I need to execute TSQL (this should help avoid issues with whether or not WMI is installed/running, the user has permissions to access the registry etc).
Does anyone know of a way to do this ?
Thanks.
PS: Basically I want to do this so I can monitor my database size against the 4gb limit and take action when I approach it... but if I'm running on a full Sql Server edition then I don't want the code to worry about it since there is no (practical) hard coded limit. I could put in a manual setting in my program, but it would be much nicer if the code just did the right thing automatically, hence the need to know if the server is the 'Express' edition or not.

Answer 1

Use
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('EditionID')
or
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('Edition')
to detect which version of SQLServer is running.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174396.aspx

Answer 2

This will return 0 if it's not, and something non-zero (126 here) if it is:
select charindex('Express Edition',##version)
Example in a boolean context:
if (select charindex('Express Edition',##version)) > 0
begin
print 'Express edition!'
end
else
begin
print 'Not Express edition!'
end

Answer 3

The SERVERPROPERTY function was already mentioned in multiple other answers, but there's a better solution than checking if a string contains "Express Edition": the EngineEdition argument, which returns an int value.
Quote from the link:
EngineEdition
Database Engine edition of the instance of SQL Server installed on the
server.
1 = Personal or Desktop Engine (Not available in SQL Server 2005 and
later versions.)
2 = Standard (This is returned for Standard, Web, and Business
Intelligence.)
3 = Enterprise (This is returned for Evaluation, Developer, and both
Enterprise editions.)
4 = Express (This is returned for Express, Express with Tools and
Express with Advanced Services)
5 = SQL Database
6 - SQL Data Warehouse
Base data type: int
So you can check for Express Edition like this:
if SERVERPROPERTY('EngineEdition') = 4
begin
select 'Express'
end
else
begin
select 'not Express'
end

Answer 4

There are a number of ways:
EXEC sp_server_info 2
Or
SELECT ##version
Or
SELECT serverproperty('ProductVersion')
You Can Also do this:
DECLARE #ver nvarchar(128)
SET #ver = CAST(serverproperty('ProductVersion') AS nvarchar)
SET #ver = SUBSTRING(#ver, 1, CHARINDEX('.', #ver) - 1)
IF ( #ver = '8' )
SELECT 'SQL Server 2000'
ELSE IF ( #ver = '9' )
SELECT 'SQL Server 2005'
ELSE
SELECT 'Unsupported SQL Server Version'
More info at: http://blog.devstone.com/aaron/default,date,2006-12-15.aspx

Answer 5

You can use SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') which will return "Express Edition"

Answer 6

What happens in SQL Server Express if you don't monitor the size, but get to the limit? Are there warnings first? Events in the event log?
If so, then you might do better to allow SQL Server to issue the warnings, and then just listen to them. The same might well apply for a SQL Server Enterprise installation if a disk gets full.