A SQL Azure tip a day (13) – Releases

Oopps! Upgrade your browser pretty please. Oopps! Upgrade your browser pretty please.

The release cycle of SQL Azure is 4 times a year, and new functionality is added in every release. Some features from SQL server 2008 are still not implemented in SQL Azure, but some features are already released in SQL Azure and they will get released in SQL server 2012. Some of the new functions that are added in SQL Azure in the September 2011 release are not even documented anymore, like EOMONTH(), IIF(), TRY_PARSE(), etc. was added in the “What’s new” section, but since the December release they are not documented. These features are added to SQL Server 2012 and you can read about them in books online or at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645577(v=SQL.110).aspx I have added example of some of the new functions for you to try, and the rest of them I leave for you to try on your own. SELECT IIF(DATEPART(hh,GETDATE())>12,’AM’,’PM’); SELECT EOMONTH(GETDATE()) DECLARE @i CHAR(3)=’A’ SELECT TRY_PARSE( @i as int) SELECT CHOOSE(3, ‘a’,’b’,’c’,’d’) BEGIN TRY THROW 51000, ‘The record does not exist.’, 1; END TRY BEGIN CATCH PRINT ERROR_MESSAGE(); END CATCH

Stay tuned for more blog posts about SQL Azure, or contact any of our SQL server consultants if you want more information.