|
Mark your calendar. SQL Server
2008 will be released on Feb 17, 2008, along with Windows
Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. In this article, I will
describe some important development related features of SQL
Server 2008.
New Data Types
DATE and TIME: These
data types help you store date and time parts separately.
A functionality that has been desired for a long time. DATETIME2: Similar to DATETIME
data type but with better accuracy. DATETIME
is accurate to one thousandth of a second. DATETIME2
is accurate up to 100 nanoseconds. DATETIMEOFFSET: This data type includes
time zone offset from GMT, along with DATETIME
value. -
HIERARCHYID: This data type, along with
a few new system methods, helps you store and query hierarchical
data. Very interesting.
GEOMETRY and GEOGRAPHY:
Helps you deal with spatial data structures.
Entity Data Model
SQL Server 2008 gives you the ability to model complex relationships
(such as customers, orders, etc.) as business entities. This
supplements the traditional model of using tables, that is,
the result-set of rows and columns.
Language Integrated Queries (LINQ)
This is more of an enhancement in .NET but deserves special
mention here. LINQ is an extension to .NET languages such as
C# and VB.NET for managing relational data as objects. Be prepared
to see many new articles on this technology.
MERGE Statement
This command provides you the ability to INSERT
data if it does not exist or UPDATE data if
does exist, all in a single statement.
Table Value Parameter
You now have the ability to create variables that are of "table"
type and pass them to stored procedures.
Overall, many enhancements have also been made in the area of
security, auditing, reliability, performance, reporting, etc.
In a future article, I will cover enhancements in reporting.
For those interested, Microsoft has acquired data visualization
capabilities from Dundas software. |
