Chapter 1. Introduction
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is the latest relational database server product from Microsoft, updating Microsoft SQL Server 2000. SQL Server 2005 adds new functionality and improves the performance, reliability, programmability, and usability of SQL Server 2000.
This book describes and shows how to program SQL Server 2005. Generally, the discussions cover the entire topic, because most aspects of programming SQL Server 2005 are new. Examples include using .NET Framework Common Language Runtime (CLR) assemblies to create SQL Server objects, such as stored procedures and triggers, and using SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) to programmatically create, modify, delete, and manage databases, tables, and other SQL Server objects. In the case of Transact-SQL (T-SQL) and ADO.NET 2.0, only enhancements are described and demonstrated. The SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) coverage provides a broad introduction to SSAS that should help you to understand what SSAS is, what its key parts are, and how to get started with SSAS programming—the topic is simply too large to do more than that here.
From a programming perspective, new SQL Server 2005 features include the following:
- Tools and utilities
A new IDE called SQL Server Management Studio for managing SQL Server topologies, databases, and objects; and a collection of new tools for tuning, profiling, and developing SQL Server 2005 solutions.
- Data types
New support for storing and working with native XML data and large ...