Microsoft® SQL Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

Chapter 42. What’s New for Transact-SQL in SQL Server 2008

IN THIS CHAPTER

• MERGE Statement

• Insert over DML

• GROUP BY Clause Enhancements

• Variable Assignment in DECLARE Statement

• Compound Assignment Operators

• Row Constructors

• New date and time Data Types and Functions

• Table-Valued Parameters

• Hierarchyid Data Type

• Using FILESTREAM Storage

• Sparse Columns

• Spatial Data Types

• Change Data Capture

• Change Tracking

Although SQL Server 2008 introduces some new features and changes to the Transact-SQL (T-SQL) language that provide additional capabilities, there is not a significant number of new features over what was available in 2005. T-SQL does offer the following new features:

• MERGE statement

• Insert over DML

• GROUP ...