What's New in SQL Server 2012

A key component of the cloud-ready information platform, SQL Server 2012 will help organizations unlock breakthrough insights across the organization as well quickly build solutions and extend data across on-premises and public cloud backed by mission critical confidence.

Editions and Licensing - Frequently Asked Questions

This articles discusses the frequently asked questions about the editions and licensing available for SQL Server 2012.

SQL Server 2012 Programmability Datasheet

Build applications that target your on-premise environment or the cloud with powerful new developer tools and frameworks.  Simplify complex programming tasks with SQL language improvements.

SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services Datasheet

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 helps enable organizations to build comprehensive, enterprise-scale analytic solutions that deliver actionable insights through familiar tools. SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services introduces the BI Semantic Model, a single model for users with multiple ways of building business intelligence (BI) solutions.

SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services Datasheet

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Master Data Services (MDS) enables organizations of all sizes to operationalize their commitment to information. MDS helps to ease the management of organizational master data.

SQL Server 2012 Data Mining Datasheet

Gain intuitive and comprehensive predictive insight with Predictive Analysis in SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2012 High Availability Datasheet

Achieve maximum application availability and data protection using SQL Server AlwaysOn and other high availability features.

SQL Server 2012 Maximum Capacity Specifications (32-bit Server)

This page specifies the maximum sizes and numbers of various objects defined in SQL Server 2012 components and compared against the maximum sizes and numbers of various objects defined in SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 components.

SQL Server 2012 Server Configuration Options

This page compares all available configuraion options for both SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2008 R2, showing the range of possible settings and default values.

SQL Server 2012 New Date Functions

SQL Server 2012 introduces the following new date and time functions that returns a date and/or time value from their parts.

SQL Server 2012 New String Functions

SQL Server 2012 introduces 2 new string functions, namely the CONCAT string function and the FORMAT string function. The CONCAT string function concatenates two or more string values while the FORMAT string function formats a value with the specified format and optional culture.

SQL Server 2012 New Logical Functions (CHOOSE and IIF)

SQL Server 2012 introduces a new category of built-in scalar functions, the logical functions, which as the name implies, performs logical operations.

SQL Server 2012 FORMAT String Function Cultures

SQL Server 2012 introduces the FORMAT string function which returns a value formatted with the specified format and optional culture.  This article shows all the different cultures available and shows how the output will look like for some of the standard date and time formats as well as some of the standard numeric formats.

SQL Server 2012 Date Formats Using the FORMAT Function and CONVERT Function

Here's a summary of the different date formats that come standard in SQL Server as part of the CONVERT function and the corresponding syntax using the new SQL Server 2012 FORMAT string function.