Using SET LANGUAGE

You may never need to execute this particular SET statement, but if you do, do you know what it changes? The biggest change is that it changes the default format of dates, including the names and abbreviations for months and days of the week. If you change the language, you're then changing the results of things like CONVERT when you convert a date to a string. It doesn't affect the data (as long as you stored the date as a date of course), but it can definitely affect the display. Usually that's a good thing, but it can break things if you're looking for 'OCT' and get back 'OKT' because the language is set to German!

Andy Warren is a software trainer focusing on SQL Server, a member of the PASS Board of Directors, and a principal in this site - SQLShare.com.

Charles Proctor on 12/13/2010

Tricked me on the OKT when I was expecting DEC

Farid on 12/16/2010

good. I ddin't know about that one

Jamshid Nouri on 12/16/2010

short and sweet, excellent

Scott Schwarze on 12/16/2010

Is OKt not October? I thought Decemeber was Dez.

Terrance on 12/16/2010

Good lesson but find very little use for it.

R Michael Lacy on 12/16/2010

The reason Okt was displayed after the language was changed to German is because 12/10/2010 was then interpreted as the 12th day of the 10th month (Oct or Okt) of year 2010. This wasn't mentioned in the video.

Leonard Peoples on 12/16/2010

Can come in handy in California where everything must be in English and in Spanish. Thanks for the tip.

Michelle Poolet on 12/16/2010

wonderful tips...did not know about sp_helplanguage, thanks!

Irfan Mohammed on 12/16/2010

Excellent

Gilles Despaties on 12/17/2010

this is cool!!!!!

FELIX on 12/21/2010

Good video

Leon on 12/29/2010

Very helpfull. Always messing with date-conversions. Same for amounts (1,000.95 is 1.000,95 in europe). Maybe you could explain this too?

Maurice Ivory on 7/18/2011

It was okay, I don't change languages much in my current position.

mahaboob on 2/14/2012

very good video