Mike Seattle (2/8/2013)
OMG! I've worked with SQL Server for over 10 years and I've never heard of assertions. Really. This is the first time I hear there is something like that in SQL Server.
While there are asserts in SQL, they are not something that you can create, they're a query plan operator only, so unless you spend time diving into query plans, you'll never see them.
Assertions are more commonly associated with front end languages, as in
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.debug.assert%28v=vs.100%29.aspx
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability