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SQL Server 2008 is out! All editions are on MSDN now except for Express, which should hopefully follow soon. Enjoy!

The MERGE syntax I used here has changed. In 2008 RC0 the ''WHEN SOURCE NOT MATCHED'' clause is replaced with ''WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE'' which is supposed to make the meaning clearer. Although MERGE is part of standard SQL 2003 it's worth noting that the SOURCE NOT MATCHED / NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE clause is not part of the standard. ...

SQL Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 (build 10.0.1442.32) was released to MSDN and TechNet subscribers on Friday. It should be available to everyone else very soon via the Connect site. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx   Apart from the new branding ...

There's some good news filtering into my inbox today about SQL Server bugs that have been fixed in the upcoming CTP (i.e. CTP6).Title: SSIS: Raw files throw an error at 4GB Description: It is not possible to load more than 4GB of data into a raw file. Status: Resolved (Fixed) Link: ...

SQL Server 2008 is upon us and if there is one feature about which I am somewhat excited (sad geek, I know) is the plethora of new data types designed purely to store dates and times. To explain the reasons for this excitement let me just list the problems with existing SQL types. The first major issue is that of resolution: Smalldatetime has ...

CTP5 is available today! http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3BF4C5CA-B905-4EBC-8901-1D4C1D1DA884 Jamie has already blogged about some of the new goodies in CTP5, which include Intellisense for Management Studio. Also new in this release is the FileStream feature, which is something I've been working with ...

Hallelujah. Finally SQL Server Management Studio has caught up with the rest of the world and started offering intellisense within SQL Server Management Studio. Here's some screen shots:   CTRL-J brings up a list of all available objects for a FROM clause   Specifying part of a fully-qualified name (which you all use, right?) ...

Just like Andrea Merkel, Tottenham Hotspur and Britney Spears' career, the Lookup task in SSIS 2005 is in serious need of a makeover. Whilst it is one of the more useful components in the SSIS toolbox it has a number of shortcomings including: Inability to dynamically build the SQL statement that populates the cache when in 'Full Cache' mode ...

Spotted in pre-CTP5. Right-click on a table and see 2 new options:Select Top 1000 RowsEdit Top 200 Rows As I say, very simple. But for large tables those will be very handy. Can you think of any other small bug significant improvements that you'd like to see made to SQL Server Management Studio? Buck Woody wants to hear about ...

MERGE is a new DML statement in SQL Server 2008. Microsoft have implemented the ISO SQL 2003 and 2007 standard MERGE statement (as seen in Oracle and DB2) and added some extensions of their own. In a nutshell, MERGE allows you to perform simultaneous UPDATE, INSERT and/or DELETE operations on one table. There are new physical operators that ...