Man I am so behind on getting my notes and thoughts typed up...I've been to over ten sessions and I only have two typed up. I should be able to catch up this evening. Tuesday was rather uneventful as I hit a string of so-so sessions. Without further ado here is my notes for the session on Spatial Support in SQL Server 2008.....

Spatial Support in SQL Server 2008

- Spatial support is vector based and includes planar (Geometry) and geodetic (Geography)

- SQL Server was expanded to allow large UDTs

o In 2005, UDTs were limited to 5K

o In 2008, UDTs are limited only by LOB size (around 2 gigs)

- Geometry

o Adheres to OGC/ISO standards

o Can store points, lines, polygons and collections of the previously mentioned

o Methods include relationship (intersects, disjoint), construction (intersection, union) and metrics (distance, area)

o Sample:

DECLARE @g GEOMETRY

SET @g = GEOMETRY:PARSE(‘POINT(5.5 8.8)’)

- Geography

o Ellipsoidal data-type

o Does not adhere to OGC/ISO standards

o Same methods as Geometry class

- Spatial Indexes: Uses multi-level grids to map multi-dimensional data into a 2-dimension index