TSQL Cookbook: Whats cooking in SQL Server 2008 R2 and New in SLQ Server Code Named “Denali”

New in R2( mostly availabe in SQL 2008)

Date, Time, Datetime2,datetimeoffset
Merge statement
Grouping Sets -  group by grouping sets
Spatial support through geometry and geography
Table value parameters

Denali

Simpplified Paging - Added Offset/Fetch Next
syntax -- Offset 10 rows fetch next 10 rows only

Add support UTF-16
Added _SC to collations

Sequence Genrators - seperates number-generation from coulmn and table
get min/max values...when max value hit will recyle to min value
create sEQUENCE s1 start with 1
select next value for s1,* from table1
Use OVER to order result set
 
Error Handling - Added Throw/ReTrow
Statement abort, scope abort, Batch abort, Transaction abort, connection abort

Improve Dynamic SQL
Support for defining a contract for returned reulsets

Additional Scalar functions
Try_convert - return null if conversion fails on converts (very cool)
Format - like .net for cultures
Parse
Try_Parse
IIF - Use instead case
Choose
Concat - treat nulls as empty strings
EOMOTH - returns end of month for giving date
and multiple date functions to create dates

Robust Results from Metadata
Replace set FMTONLY