SQL Server 2012 (RC0 Available here) has introduced new analytic functions. These functions were long awaited and I am glad that they are now here. Before when any of this function was needed, people used to write long T-SQL code to simulate these functions. But now there’s no need of doing so. Having available native function also helps performance as well as readability.
In the last few days I have written many articles on this subject on my blog. The goal was to make these complex analytic functions easy to understand and make them widely accepted. As these new functions are available and as awareness spreads about them, we should start using these new functions. Here is a quick list of the new functions and relevant MSDN sites:
| Function | SQLAuthority | MSDN |
| CUME_DIST | CUME_DIST | CUME_DIST |
| FIRST_VALUE | FIRST_VALUE | FIRST_VALUE |
| LAST_VALUE | LAST_VALUE | LAST_VALUE |
| LEAD | LEAD | LEAD |
| LAG | LAG | LAG |
| PERCENTILE_CONT | PERCENTILE_CONT | PERCENTILE_CONT |
| PERCENTILE_DISC | PERCENTILE_DISC | PERCENTILE_DISC |
| PERCENT_RANK | PERCENT_RANK | PERCENT_RANK |
I also enjoyed three different puzzles during the course of this series which gave a clear idea to the SQL Server 2012 analytic functions.
- SQL SERVER – Puzzle to Win Print Book – Functions FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE with OVER clause and ORDER BY
- SQL SERVER – Puzzle to Win Print Book – Write T-SQL Self Join Without Using LEAD and LAG
- SQL SERVER – Puzzle to Win Print Book – Explain Value of PERCENTILE_CONT() Using Simple Example
This series will always be my dear series as during this series I had went through a very unique experience of my book going out of stock and becoming available after 48 hours.
Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)
