New features when programming SQL Server 2008:
- Table-Valued Parameters
This means that you can send DataTable, DbDataReader or IEnumerable<SqlDataRecord> as parameters to a stored procedure. When is this needed? For example when you need to send multiple (array) parameters, like I want to get the orders for customers with id 1,32 and 45. Read more in for example Mike Taulty's Blog. - New Date and Time Types: date, time, datetime2 and datetimeoffset
Read more in for example Ravi S.Maniam's Blog. - Unlimited Length UDF. The new spatial data type is built on top of this.
- FileStream Data Type. This will enable you to write files, like documents or even movies directly into the database and of course this will work with transactions.
Read more in for example Ravi S.Maniam's Blog.
One thing that I noticed on the session was that the Query window had Intellisense!