SQL Server 2022 has been released! Long live SQL Server! No really, I’ve still got a while before retirement. I need SQL Server to stay popular for at least another decade or two.

One of the things that I’ve found the most useful over the years is that I’m at least familiar with the majority of what’s available within the areas of SQL that I work in. Can I use them without having to look anything up? No, not in a lot of cases. Do I at least know they exist? Yes. One thing that’s helped me (aside from following a bunch of SQL experts and reading their blogs) is reading over the list of things that are new in the latest version of SQL. And the version before that, and the version before that, etc. In fact, your homework for this month is some light reading. Pick a version you are particularly familiar with, in my case 2016, and read all of the “what’s new pages” from that point on.

The What’s New pages for 2016 and up are pretty easy to find.

• 2016
• 2017
• 2019
• 2022

The older versions are a bit harder and require you to go into the SQL Server Previous Versions documentation.

This is not going to qualify you to use any of the stuff mentioned, but at the very least you’ll have a general idea of what’s going on. And who knows, you might find something that excites you and you can do some reading/practicing on that particular feature. Batch mode anyone?!