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Jeremy Louder | I need To Develop Some Database in SQL Server 2012. I Might be Best SQL Server 2012 To Develop Database with Enhance Features.
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Hi Jeremy Louder,
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Best regards,
Seeya
SQL server 2012 or SQL server 2016
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SQLServer 2012 is no longer supported. If for some reason its your target, then just use sqlserver 2012 developer edition. I believe you will need a visual studio subscription to get the download.
If you just want to learn features, than the sqlserver 2022 developer edition is free.
Rather than which version of SQL Server you use, you should be paying attention to the Database Compatibility Level that you set the database to.
Since SQL Server 2016, switching on of new query engine functionality is done using the Database Compatibility Level. For example, if you develop a new database on SQL Server 2022, but set the DBCompat to 140 then in effect the database engine is behaving like SQL Server 2017 and the enhancements that became available since then won't necessarily be reflected in your database.
I would always advise to develop on the latest platform version (currently SQL Server 2022) and then set the DBCompat for your database according to your target consumers and the versions of SQL Server that they may have, noting that you cannot set the DBCompat higher than the default level for that platform - i.e. the highest DBCompat on SQL Server 2019 is 150.
Download the SQL Server 2022 Developer Edition for your new work and set your compatibility as needed for your application - but if no legacy compatibility is needed then set it to 160.
I'm not sure that I agree here. Compat level protects you from using some features not available on the lower version. For instance, if you try to use the brand-new generate_series in compat level 110, you will get an error. But nothing is going to stop you from using the equally new get_bit. Until you actually deploy the code on SQL 2012 and get an error.
So if you are an inexperienced developer, you will be better off developing on the same version you are going to deploy on. And, yes, SQL 2012 is out of date, but that does not stop users out there from using it for one reason or another.
The challenge in this particular case is that getting your hands on SQL 2012 Developer Edition is not that easy, unless you have an MSDN subscription. There seems to still be a free download version of SQL 2012 Express available: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50003. Maybe that is the best bet.
How do you define "the best"? If there would be "the best", then there would be only one ... the best.
Use the latest version.
SQL Server 2012 is old and already out-of-support, see
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/microsoft-sql-server-2012
Hi Jeremy Louder,
As they said, SQL Server 2012 is old and already out-of-support. Please refer to this document about Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2016
You can see the other versions of SQL Server from the left navigation bar.
Best regards,
Seeya
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