5 Appendix A: Product Behavior

The information in this specification is applicable to the following Microsoft products or supplemental software. References to product versions include updates to those products.

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

• Microsoft SQL Server 2012

• Microsoft SQL Server 2014

• Microsoft SQL Server 2016

• Microsoft SQL Server 2017

• Microsoft SQL Server 2019

• Microsoft SQL Server 2022

Exceptions, if any, are noted in this section. If an update version, service pack or Knowledge Base (KB) number appears with a product name, the behavior changed in that update. The new behavior also applies to subsequent updates unless otherwise specified. If a product edition appears with the product version, behavior is different in that product edition.

Unless otherwise specified, any statement of optional behavior in this specification that is prescribed using the terms "SHOULD" or "SHOULD NOT" implies product behavior in accordance with the SHOULD or SHOULD NOT prescription. Unless otherwise specified, the term "MAY" implies that the product does not follow the prescription.

<1> Section 2.1: Microsoft implementations include the Sql_Variant data type, which is a special data type definition that supports different data types for each instance of the value. The following data types are supported:

• BigInt

• Binary

• Bit

• Char

• Date

• DateTime

• DateTime2

• DateTimeOffset

• Decimal

• Float

• Int

• Money

• NChar

• Numeric

• NVarChar

• Real

• SmallDateTime

• SmallInt

• SmallMoney

• Time

• TinyInt

• UniqueIdentifier

• VarBinary

• VarChar

<2> Section 2.1.5: Customer user-defined types are written in the Microsoft .NET Framework. The hierarchyID and Spatial data types are not supported by SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.

<3> Section 2.1.6: The Date data type is not supported by SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.

<4> Section 2.1.8: The DateTime2 data type is not supported by SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.

<5> Section 2.1.9: The DateTimeOffset data type is not supported by SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.

<6> Section 2.1.24: The Time data type is not supported by SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.

<7> Section 2.3.1.5.1: In addition to the COLUMN data types listed in the table, Microsoft SQL Server supports a data type named SQLVARIANT. The database data type of SQLVARIANT is Sql_Variant.

<8> Section 2.3.1.5.1: In addition to the COLUMN data types listed here, SQL Server supports the SQLVARIANT data type.