SQL Server 2016 Release Candidate 0 now available for download

The SQL Server engineering team just announced the availability of SQL Server 2016 Release Candidate 0.


To learn more about the release, visit the SQL Server 2016 preview page. To experience the new, exciting features in SQL Server 2016 and the new rapid release model, download the preview and start evaluating the impact these new innovations can have for your business.


For more information on this release, see SQL Server 2016 Release Notes and What’s New in SQL Server 2016.

Some of the more interesting things added is that instead of a trace flag, you can now execute a 

ALTER DATABASE SCOPED CONFIGURATION command.

It looks like this

ALTER DATABASE SCOPED CONFIGURATION

{

[FOR SECONDARY]

{ SET  |  CLEAR PROCEDURE_CACHE }

}[;]

< set_options > ::=

{ MAXDOP = { | PRIMARY}

| LEGACY_CARDINALITY_ESTIMATION = { ON | OFF | PRIMARY}

| PARAMETER_SNIFFING = { ON | OFF | PRIMARY}

| QUERY_OPTIMIZER_HOTFIXES = { ON | OFF | PRIMARY}

| ONLINE_OPERATION_DEFAULT = {ON | OFF} }

There is also finally a built in split string function.

It looks like this

SELECT * FROM STRING_SPLIT('Hi how are you doing?',' ')

The result is:

value

—–

Hi

how

are

you

doing?

Finally, there will be an event on March 10, 2016: SQL Server 2016 — Take the lead, watch the live stream

Get the RC 0  here: SQL Server 2016 Release Candidate 0