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SQL | Scalar functions exercise | Create simple function to show month name
This exercise is provided to allow potential course delegates to choose the correct Wise Owl Microsoft training course, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any format without the prior written consent of Wise Owl.
The answer to the exercise will be included and explained if you attend the course listed below!
Software ==> | SQL (198 exercises) |
Version ==> | Any version of SQL Server |
Topic ==> | Scalar functions (6 exercises) |
Level ==> | Average difficulty |
Course ==> | Advanced SQL |
- Go into SQL Server Management Studio;
- Open the SQL file you've just unzipped (you can press CTRL + O to do this); then
- Execute this script.
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Strangely there is no function that can return the name of a month when given a number 1 to 12. Luckily for you that is exactly what we will do (the rest of this exercise explains how!).

The function you make will only produce one month name. When it's working properly try looping through number 1 to 12.
The layout for creating a function is very close to that for a stored procedure with a parameter, but with an extra part to specify the data type returned:
CREATE FUNCTION FunctionName
(@Para1 Datatype)
RETURNS Datatype
AS
BEGIN
RETURN
--The calculation goes here
END
To turn a month number into a month name we need to recreate a DATE to do that use the following code.

There are any number of ways to return the month name - feel free to use a different one.
Test that your function is working by passing in several month numbers separately.
Optionally save this as Month Name function.sql and close it down.