One of my favorite features with SQL 2008 has been Data and Backup compression (which I discuss in more detail technically here ) - this is not only because of the actual functionality it brings to the table, but also because of all the technical intricacies that it involves and the impact it can have...

Given some of the "larger" features being introduced with Sql 2008 which are getting lots of coverage and attention (understandably so), there are actually quite a few "smaller" features that are included which will provide a great deal of benefit to SQL Server users everywhere -...

So, more than likely almost everyone has already heard that Sql 2008 will introduce a MERGE syntax, making it much easier to deal with scenarios where you need to perform 'upsert' type logic (i.e., you have a source data set and you want to put records from that source set into a target set ...

Most of you are aware that Sql Server 2005 introduced the OUTPUT clause, which provided functionality to stream records affected by a write-based statement (i.e. insert/update/delete) into a table variable, which you could then use for other purposes (perhaps to log, or to archive data from a non-partitioned...

With Sql 2008 (in the current CTP you have in your hand), thanks to a new extension to the group by clause referred to as 'grouping sets', you now have the ability to use sets of grouping columns in your group by clauses, allowing you to define basically multiple groupings in the same single...

So, I've been getting quite a few pings about providing a list of new features to look for in Katmai (Sql 2008) - well, I put together a list below, and this isn't even everything (though it's a lot of the major stuff) - I even tried to categorize it (and some things may appear in multiple...

This post will cover an initial overview of the data compression feature that will be included in Sql Server 2008, and I'll also cover briefly some information on the Backup Compression feature as well (note that these are 2 totally separate and distinct features, since they are very different, as...

In Sql 2008 (Katmai), a couple of the 'smaller' features that are currently in the latest CTP include inline variable initialization and compound assignment (something you App Dev folks have had for years). So, the following types of code now work in Sql 2008: declare @d datetime = getdate()...