New T-SQL Capabilities in SQL Server 2005 - Part 2 of 3

In last month's article, I covered the PIVOT, OUTPUT, and TOP N capabilities in T-SQL 2005. This month I’ll cover three more new language features in T-SQL 2005: The new APPLY operator that (as the term indicates) allows developers to more efficiently apply/integrate table-valued User-Defined Functions into SQL queries New Ranking functions to more easily and effectively assign sequential ranking numbers to a result set The new TRY….CATCH error handling capabilities to allow developers and DBAs to write more robust stored procedure code