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Adding columns with default values When an added column has a default value, the entire column is populated with the default. In previous releases, the column was populated with NULL.
Permissions of referential integrity actions When changes are made to a primary table, referential integrity actions such as cascading deletes or updates can take place on a secondary table. These actions are implemented using system triggers. The triggers now execute with the permissions of the owner of the secondary table. Previously, they executed with permissions of the owner of the primary table. The new behavior means that cascaded operations can take place between tables with different owners, without additional permissions having to be granted.
datediff, MONTHS, and YEARS functions The number of months between two dates is now calculated as the number of first-of-the-months between the dates. For example, the difference between January 25 and February 2 is 1; the difference between January 1 and January 31 is 0. The number of years is now calculated as the number of first-of-the-years between the dates.
This changes the results of these functions by one number, in some cases. The change was made for compatibility with Adaptive Server Enterprise.
For the smaller time units there are overflow values to the DATEDIFF function that are now imposed. Previous versions of the software gave incorrect answers if the limit was exceeded.
For a full description, see DATEDIFF function [Date and time].
Default page size The default page size for databases is now 2048 bytes. This choice is a better choice for many users.
Default database collation The default collation used when creating databases has changed. The default depends on your operating system settings.
For information on how to find the default collation, see Determining the default collation.
SQL Preprocessor default collation If no collation is explicitly specified, the Embedded SQL Preprocessor now uses locale information to choose a default collation. If the locale information is unavailable, then 850LATIN1 will be used. The collation used is reported following the banner. Previous behavior was to use 850.
For information on the preprocessor, see SQL preprocessor.
Enforced server name length The server name is checked on startup, and is truncated to a maximum value of 40 characters. On NetBIOS, it is truncated to 16 characters. From the client side, the value of the EngineName parameter is also truncated to 40 characters.
For more information, see EngineName connection parameter [ENG].
Agent connection parameter The Agent connection parameter behavior has been changed. The meaning of this parameter changed from version 5 to version 6, as the need for the dbclient executable was removed. The parameter meaning has changed to be more useful in a Version 6 environment.
The Agent connection parameter is deprecated as of version 8.0.1.