Difference between SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2008:

1. SQL Server 2008 is code named as Katmai.
2.The Maximum number concurrent connections to SQL Server 2008 is 32767.
3.The SQL Server 2008 uses 27 bit bit precision for spatial calculations.
4.TRY_CONVERT() and FORMAT() functions are not available in SQL Server 2008
5.ORDER BY Clause does not have OFFSET / FETCH options as in SQL Server 2012
6.In SQL Server 2008, audit is an Enterprise-only feature. Only available in Enterprise, Evaluation, and Developer Edition.
7.Sequence is not available in SQL Server 2008
8.The Full Text Search in SQL Server 2008 does not allow us to search and index data stored in extended properties or metadata.
9.Analysis Services in SQL Server does not have BI Semantic Model (BISM) concept.

SQL Server 2012:

1.SQL Server 2012 is code named as Denali
2.SQL server 2012 has unlimited concurrent connections.
3.The SQL Server 2012 uses 48 bit precision for spatial calculations
4.TRY_CONVERT() and FORMAT() functions are newly included in SQL Server 2012
5. ORDER BY Clause now have OFFSET / FETCH options to use paging to show required rows per page in applications and allow the user to scroll through each page of results rather than download the entire set

In the sample query below, SQL Server would return 10 records beginning with record 11. The OFFSET command provides a starting point for the SELECT statement in terms of paging, and the FETCH command provides how many records to return at a time.

SELECT BusinessEntityID, FirstName, LastName
FROM Person.Person
ORDER BY BusinessEntityID
OFFSET 10 ROWS
FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY;

6.In SQL Server 2012,support for server auditing is expanded to include all editions of SQL Server.
7. Sequence is included in SQL Server 2012.Sequence is a user defined object that generates a sequence of a number.

Here is an example using Sequence.

/****** Create Sequence Object ******/
CREATE SEQUENCE MySequence
START WITH 1
INCREMENT BY 1;

/****** Create Temp Table ******/
DECLARE @Person TABLE
(
ID int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
FullName nvarchar(100) NOT NULL
);

/****** Insert Some Data ******/
INSERT @Person (ID, FullName)
VALUES (NEXT VALUE FOR MySequence, 'Umar Ali'),
(NEXT VALUE FOR MySequence, 'John Peter'),
(NEXT VALUE FOR MySequence, 'Mohamed Iqbal');

/****** Show the Data ******/
SELECT * FROM @Person;

The results would look like this:

ID FullName
1 Umar Ali
2 John Peter
3 Mohamed Iqbal

8.The Full Text Search in SQL Server 2012 has been enhanced by allowing us to search and index data stored in extended properties or metadata. Consider a PDF document that has "properties" filled in like Name, Type, Folder path, Size, Date Created, etc. In the newest release of SQL Server, this data could be indexes and searched along with the data in the document itself. The data does have to be exposed to work, but it's possible now.

9. Analysis Services will include a new BI Semantic Model (BISM). BISM is a 3-layer model that includes:

Data Model
Business Logic
Data Access

BISM will enhance Microsoft's front end analysis experiencing including Excel, Reporting Services and SharePoint Insights. Microsoft has said that BISM is not a replacement for the current BI Models but more of an alternative model. In simple terms, BISM is a relation model that includes BI artifact such as KPIs and hierarchies.