How to Get the Name of the Current Database in SQL Server (T-SQL)

When running queries in SQL Server, you’ll need to know which database your query is running against. If you’re using a GUI tool like SSMS, you’ll usually see the database expanded in the object explorer. Perhaps you even navigated to the database before opening a query window. In such cases, there will be no doubt which database you’re querying.

But when running T-SQL in a command line tool it’s not normally so apparent which database we’re working with. Also, you may be writing a script that needs to include the database name. Such scripts can be much more portable when they fetch the current database name dynamically (as opposed to having it hardcoded).

Fortunately SQL Server provides us with a function that makes it easy to find out the current database.

Using the `DB_NAME()` Function

SQL Server’s DB_NAME() function is made specifically to get the name of a given database. By default it returns the name of the current database. When I say “by default”, I mean, when we call it without any arguments:

SELECT DB_NAME();

For example:

USE WideWorldImporters;
SELECT DB_NAME();

Result:

WideWorldImporters

Here, I set WideWorldImporters as the current database, then called DB_NAME(). The DB_NAME() function simply returned the name of the current database.

You can also pass a database ID to retrieve the name of a specific database:

SELECT DB_NAME(1);

Output:

master

The master database is usually the first one in the list.

So to summarize:

With no arguments, DB_NAME() returns the name of the current database.
Passing a database ID retrieves the name of the database with that ID (or NULL if none have that ID).

Using `DB_ID()` Along with `DB_NAME()`

If you want both the ID and name of the current database, you can combine DB_ID() with DB_NAME():

SELECT DB_ID()   AS CurrentDatabaseID,
       DB_NAME() AS CurrentDatabase;

Output:

CurrentDatabaseID  CurrentDatabase   
-----------------  ------------------
8                  WideWorldImporters

This time we get to see the ID of the current database, as well as its name.

Querying the `sys.databases` Catalog View

Another way to get the name of the current database is to query sys.databases. This system catalog view stores information about all databases on the SQL Server instance. We can use DB_ID() to filter for the current database:

SELECT name AS CurrentDatabase,
       database_id,
       create_date,
       compatibility_level,
       state_desc
FROM sys.databases
WHERE database_id = DB_ID();

Output:

CurrentDatabase     database_id  create_date               compatibility_level  state_desc
------------------  -----------  ------------------------  -------------------  ----------
WideWorldImporters  8            2021-10-06T22:08:52.490Z  130                  ONLINE

This method can be helpful when you also need metadata (creation date, state, compatibility level, etc.).

Using the DB_NAME() Function

Using DB_ID() Along with DB_NAME()

Querying the sys.databases Catalog View

Using the `DB_NAME()` Function

Using `DB_ID()` Along with `DB_NAME()`

Querying the `sys.databases` Catalog View