I continue my #EntryLevel challenge, discussing DATEFROMPARTS() and similar functions introduced in SQL Server 2012.

I talk about a couple of subtleties of THROW, and how to avoid frustrating bouts of troubleshooting.

Microsoft announced today that their next two major releases, each of which contains a major performance-related feature, will follow a naming strategy similar to the 2008 -> 2008 R2 story. Read on for more…

See some of the ways to produce running totals, including new functionality in SQL Server 2012.

I talk about how your SQL Server instance might not be firing on all cylinders if you get into this licensing scenario.

When EOMONTH was first announced, I questioned its value, and thought BOMONTH would have been more useful.

I talk a bit about the very early sneak peaks of the very first iteration of columnstore indexes.

See some new metadata-related features introduced in SQL Server 2012.

I take a look at THROW, new error handling functionality in SQL Server 2012.

I explain how partially contained databases work and what problems they intend to solve.

I highlight some issues with the 2012 release of Books Online, the documentation set for SQL Server.

I talk about an enhancement introduced in SSMS 2012 that will make it simpler to troubleshoot an offline instance.

SQL Server 2012 introduces OFFSET and FETCH NEXT clause to help simplify pagination.

Discover a potentially breaking change to how object_id values are assigned to #temp tables starting with SQL Server 2012.