Michael Fried (12/13/2012)
OK, thanks for the response. I guess there are two potential views on this setting:1) Functionality that has been deprecated (or changed) in a newer version will be reverted back to working in the compatibility mode version.
2) Functionality of a given version in compatibility mode will actually function like that version.
I guess I would expect it to function more like a Microsoft Office program. When you save a document in Office 2003 Compatibility mode all 2007 or above features are removed from the document so the document can be opened successfully by Office 2003.
Mike
Emphasis added.
Yes, but when you open your 2003 document in Word 2007, you still see a ribon at the top of the screen, right?
It's the same thing. Some of it will work, because of the engine, some of it won't. You'll need to research specific features.
For example, I just created a database in Compat 80 (SQL 2000) on my SQL 2008 R2 Dev Edition instance. I then created a table in that database using the Date datatype, which is new to SQL 2008. It worked. You would't think so, but it does.
The number of times I've seen people set a database to an earlier compatibility, then back it up, and then try to restore it on a copy of the earlier engine, and get confused as to why it's "broken", is pretty significant. They're expecting "I saved it as Word 2003, so Word 2003 can open it" to apply to databases, but it really doesn't.
The main thing to know is that compatibility doesn't actually change the fact that it's an SQL 2008 (or whatever) database. It just changes how certain features work, mainly to allow backwards code-compatibility. It's not really intended to keep newer code from working, it's intended to keep older code working even when you shouldn't use it any more.
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