Book excerpt: Discussing new and existing features, SQL Server designer and administrator Michael Coles takes you on an expert guided tour of Transact–SQL functionality in SQL Server 2008 in his book, Pro T–SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide. Fully functioning examples and downloadable source code bring Coles' technically accurate and engaging treatment of Transact–SQL into your own hands. Step–by–step explanations ensure clarity, and an advocacy of best–practices will steer you down the road to success. Pro T–SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide is every developer's key to making full use of SQL Server 2008's powerful, built–in Transact–SQL language. Transact–SQL is the language developers and DBAs use to interact with SQL Server. It's used for everything from querying data, to writing stored procedures, to managing the database. New features in SQL Server 2008 include a spatial data type, SQLCLR integration, the MERGE statement, a dramatically improved and market–leading XML feature set, and support for encryption—all of which are covered in this book