19 February 2005

Primer

Just had my first look at sql server 2005 beta 2. Thought I 'd throw this out there so I'd have a convenient place to note some of the differences it has with sql server 2000.

First blush:
Enterprise Manager is totally reworked. It has a new name that has already escaped me. It seems to look a bit more like the object browser in the old query analyzer than the old enterprise manager. It no longer has the mmc icon, either. I mistakenly opened the sql computer manager on my first attempt.

Query Analyzer is gone. Queries are run in the enterprise manager replacement (somewhat frightening). Fortunately, if you have SP 3 installed on your machine with Query Analyzer, you can connect to a sql server 2005 instance (at least you can with beta 2. hope it holds for release).

Some decent T-SQL enhancements. First one to fall out of the head is that TOP now takes parameters (functions, sql statements, variables, etc). i.e., SELECT TOP (5*3) * FROM sys.sysobjects is allowed instead of SELECT TOP 15 * FROM dbo.sysobjects (inane example, I know).

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