The Q2 2011 Service Release of SQL Azure introduced the updated spatial data platform from SQL Server 2012. SQL Server 2012 spatial features are being released in SQL Azure in increments, beginning with Q2 2011 Service Release. With the introduction of...

In Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (previously known as SQL Server Code-Name “Denali”), all constructions and relations are now done with 48 bits of precision, compared to 27 bits used in SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2. This can result in...

We have just released a new white paper, New Spatial Features in SQL Server Code-Named “Denali” .  This white paper covers the spatial improvements added to both CTP1 and CTP3 and becomes the definitive spatial guide to this release of SQL Server...

Some of you may not have heard that spatial support is coming in the next version of the SQL Server Entity Framework. Here is the first paragraph from a post on this subject: “One of the highly-anticipated features coming in the next version of Entity...

  SQL Server Code-named “Denali” is currently available as a Community Technology Preview (CTP).  Denali introduces 4 new aggregates to the the suite of spatial operators in SQL Server: Union Aggregate Envelope Aggregate Collection Aggregate...

A few weeks ago, in the whitepaper, New Spatial Features in SQL Server Code-Named “Denali” Community Technology Preview 1 , new spatial support for persisted computed columns was presented.  This post will elaborate on this new feature, describing...

With the availability of the new SQL Server code-named “Denali” CTP1 release, some of you will be moving existing SQL Server 2008 databases into the new server.  In order to enable the new spatial features in Denali, you will need to update the database...

Two new functions have been added to the SQL Server Spatial Tools CodePlex Project : FilterArtifactsGeography FilterArtifactsGeometry These new functions, as the names imply, are designed to remove unwanted components from spatial objects.  For instance...

One of the most often asked questions about SQL Server Spatial is “How do I load data into the spatial types?”. Safe Software has long provided solutions for this dilemma with their excellent ETL tool, Feature Manipulation Engine (FME).  On December...

In a recent post to the SQL Server Spatial Forum , the subject of finding the closest point from one geometry to another resurfaced. While this was a difficult problem with SQL Server 2008, the new “Denali” CTP has introduced a method, ShortestLineTo...

  We have just released a white paper, New Spatial Features in SQL Server Code-Named “Denali” Community Technology Preview 1 , as your definitive guide to the spatial improvements in this release of SQL Server. Of course, you can’t take advantage...

The Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) maintains a comprehensive catalog of worldwide seismic events (typically earthquakes) which is a good source of spatial data for SQL Server 2008.  The ANSS Composite Catalog (formerly called the CNSS Earthquake...

Last Wednesday (March 17th), Dave Robinson of the SQL Azure Team announced upcoming support for spatial data in SQL Azure.  You can view the announcement at the MIX Conference in the video of Dave’s presentation, Building Web Applications with Microsoft...

In the previous post , the content for Chapter 14, Spatial Data, was presented.  This post will discuss the sample code and the spatial data associated with the chapter. SOURCE CODE .  The Source Code for Chapter 14 - Spatial Data is located...

In a shameless bit of self-promotion, I’d like to call attention to the new book, Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Programming (Microsoft Press). You can get further information on the book at Itzik’s blog or by going to Microsoft Press , but I...

My faithful old IBM T60p laptop has been with me for years.  Over time, and every so slowly, it has been running hotter and hotter (especially when running complex spatial queries on SQL Server 2008 or generating map-based reports using the new SQL...

Not having posted for a while, I thought I'd take a few minutes and provide some thoughts on spatial after successfully negotiating dinner here in Austin, Texas (October 6, 2009).  I'm in town for the Texas GIS Forum, one of my favorite conferences...

In a long past post, Working with Invalid Data and the SQL Server 2008 Geography Data Type, Part 1b (August 2008), I discussed techniques for dealing with invalid data and the geography data type. In my last post, I listed the new geography validation...

As Isaac noted in his most recent post , the SQL Server Spatial Tools project on CodePlex has been updated with several new geography functions. This post provides additional detail on the new features: IsValidGeographyFromGeometry IsValidGeographyFromText...

The Report Builder, a component of Reporting Services, described in this post will be available as a separate download when the upcoming CTP2 release of SQL Server 2008 Release 2 (R2) is made available to the public, currently scheduled for August 2009...

In the previous posts I indicated that this would be the last post in this series but it turned out that I was a bit optimistic. In order to make the final Report Builder post relevant, some interesting data for analysis was needed.  In this post...

In the previous posts we have covered items 1,2 and 3 of the workflow.  In this post we address item 4. Locate data source and download (Part 1) Load the data into SQL Server (Part 1) Remove unwanted features, simplify Alaska and Hawaii spatial features...

I was recently presented with the problem of taking a US States dataset, in geographic coordinates, and creating a database table whose spatial column would render in a similar fashion to the map, below, with the Alaska and Hawaii insets. The ultimate...

In the previous post we covered items 1 and 2 of the workflow.  In this post, we will cover item 3: Locate data source and download Load the data into SQL Server Remove unwanted features, simplify Alaska and Hawaii spatial features   "Reposition"...

In his new book, Beginning Spatial with SQL Server 2008 , Alastair Aitchison describes how to create a new CLR-based geocoding T-SQL function utilizing the MapPoint Web Service .  Additionally, there is an SSIS -based MapPoint Batch Geocoder for...