Using the SQL Server 2008 UDTs on clients

A couple of people have been asking and, in preparing for my upcoming talk on spatial data on SQL Server 2008 at ITForum in Barcelona in a few weeks I got to ask about using the new system UDTs types on the client. In an upcoming CTP release there will be an MSI installer file specifically to install these types on clients. The appropriate files are installed and assembly (Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll) registered in the GAC.

Since these are .NET data types, these (HierarchyID, Geography, Geometry) are easily usable in SQLCLR functions and procedures too. No possible data type mismatches or nullability (the new types implement INullable and have a static property to return a NULL instance) concerns.

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