Monday, November 10, 2008

New SQL Skills I have learned from jobs - Part 3

This is a continuation of New SQL Skills I have learned from jobs - Part 1, Part 2

 
SQL Server 2008 Spatial Index
  • For the first time, native Spatial functions inside SQL Server (not 3rd party extensions) and it's a good start
  • Speed is quite fast with proper usage of Spatial Index (dividing earth into quadrants and quad-trees)
  • You can check for intersection, container and many other relationship between locations (either a Point, or a Polygon)
SQL Server 2008 Full-Text Search
  • An improved version of the Full-Text search engine since 2000, merged into the Database Engine (instead of separate process). New features include Stoplists and Word Breakers
  • Still one big black box that's hard to fully understand or customize for one's specific needs. Ability to custom-rank will be awesome if it exists. For now, it is just Google-alike text search, literally. If you want If X rank highest; If Y rank higher, etc... good luck!
SQL Server 2008 Integration Service
  • I enjoyed the built-in Fuzzy Search and Fuzzy Grouping, makes finding duplicate data much easier (say looking for duplicate address based on Street Name, City, State, Zip, Phone #, etc...)
  • Powerful if run on a powerful machine
  • I am used to the Drag-and-Drop GUI interface for everything now - SSIS, Maintenance Plan, rarely would I need to write custom code or T-SQL scripts to extend the current abilities 

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