Question

Is there a simple way to determine the SQL memory allocation weather its express or full version and if its 2005/ 2008 and so on?
I am fairly new to vb.net so any information or code samples would be great I know about the SQL Server Operating System Related Dynamic Management Views but am not sure how to use them to get the information i need.

Answer 1

You can get a long string of all the attributes of the current sql install with this:

SELECT @@VERSION

or you can break it down with this:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')

Here is a sample of VB to help:

        Dim tempResult As String

    Using tempConnection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection("{yourConnectionString}")
        Using tempCommand As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand()
            tempCommand.CommandText = "SELECT @@VERSION"
            tempCommand.Connection = tempConnection
            tempResult = CStr(tempCommand.ExecuteScalar)
        End Using
    End Using

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174396.aspx

Hope that helps.