T-SQL Enhancements in SQL Server 2005 | InformIT

InformIT: T-SQL Enhancements in SQL Server 2005 > Improvements to Transact-SQL
read whole article


SNAPSHOT isolation
dditional isolation level that does not use write locks

Statement-level recompile
More efficient recompilation of stored procedures

Event notifications
Integration of Data Definition Language (DDL) and DML operations with Service Broker

Large data types
New data types that deprecate TEXT and IMAGE

DDL triggers
Triggers that fire on DDL operations

Common Table Expressions
Declarative syntax that makes a reusable expression part of a query

Hierarchical queries
Declarative syntax for tree-based queries

PIVOT
Declarative syntax aggregations across columns and converting columns to rows

APPLY
New JOIN syntax made for use with user-defined functions and XML

TOP
Row count based on an expression

Transaction abort
TRY/CATCH syntax for handling errors

---
http://www.informit.com/articles/printerfriendly.aspx?p=327394