• Simple straightforward question. Useful (while SQL 2005 is still in widespread use) because MS documentation on this is unsatisfactory.

    I though the question would be difficult at first, because I skipped from SQL 2000 to SQL 2008 with only a glance at SQL 2005 to determine that it didn't have enough in it to justify the cost of migrating ourselves and all out customers, because I needed developers to sort out the appaling C++ and T-SQL application code, terrifyingly unnormalised schemata, and totally misguided system architecture that I had inherited rather than upgrade to a new MS version, so I didn't remember which of these functions was new in 2008 and which was already in 2005. But then I realised I could approach it the other way - look for the three that were not there, and three of these seven functions weren't in 2008 R2 let alone in 2005, so that gave me the answer. I expected the explanation to provide a nice straightforward reference to something about new features in 2005, but no - it seemed to follow the approach I had used and referenced a list of functions new in SQL 2012; I'm not sure that's a good way to explain this sort of thing, since without the "(Select 4)" in the question that doesn't provide an answer - it doesn't demonstrate that the other 4 functions were actually there - but i gues I shouldn't complain as that's the route I took to the answer; it made me go and check though, and as far as I can tell it is nowhere documented that these 4 functions are additions to T-SQL in 2005; of course each has its own page in Transact-SQL Reference for 2005, but it seems odd that the BOL list of new features makes no mention of them.

    Tom