Is there a replacement for Transact-SQL

Question

For the first time in years I've been doing some T-SQL programming in SQL Server 2008 and had forgotten just how bad the language really is:

• Flow control (all the begin/end stuff) feels clunky
• Exception handling is poor. Exceptions dont bubble in the same way they do in every other language. There's no re-throwing unless you code it yourself and the raiserror function isn't even spelt correctly (this caused me some headaches!)
• String handling is poor
• The only sequence type is a table. I had to write a function to split a string based on a delimiter and had to store it in a table which had the string parts along with a value indicating there position in the sequence.
• If you need to doa lookup in the stored proc then manipulating the results is painful. You either have to use cursors or hack together a while loop with a nested lookup if the results contain some sort of ordering column

I realize I could code up my stored procedures using C#, but this will require permissioning the server to allow CLR functions, which isn't an option at my workplace.

Does anyone know if there are any alternatives to T-SQL within SQL Server, or if there are any plans to introduce something. Surely there's got to be a more modern alternative...

PS: This isn't intended to start a flame-war, I'm genuinely interested in what the options are.

Answer 1

There is nothing wrong with T-SQL; it does the job it was intended for (except perhaps for the addition of control flow structures, but I digress!).

Perhaps take a look at LINQ? You can write CLR Stored Procedures, but I don't recommended this unless it is for some feature that's missing (or heavy string handling).

Answer 2

From My point of view only alternative to T-SQL within SQL Server is to NOT use SQL Slerver

According to your point handling stings whit delimiter , From where cames these strings ? You could try Integration services and "ssis packages" for converting data from one to other. Also there is nice way to access non SQL data over Linked Serves,

Answer 3

All other database stored procedure languages (PL/SQL, SQL/PSM) have about the same issues. Personally, i think these languages are exactly right for what they are intended to be used for - they are best used to do code data-driven logic, esp. if you want to reuse that for multiple applications.

So I guess my counter question to you is, why do you want your program to run as part of the database server process? Isn't what you're trying to do better solved at the application or middle-ware level? There you can take any language or data-processing tool of your choosing.