This chapter explored new Transact-SQL elements, extensions, and hints. Some of them are small enhancements that make a developer's life easier and increase their productivity. There are also significant operational extensions that increase the availability and deployment of solutions. In addition to this, two newly added query hints address some rare but serious performance problems caused by incorrect query optimizer estimations and assumptions, where it is hard to find a workaround in previous SQL Server versions. Finally, with adaptive query processing, SQL Server additionally optimizes the creation of an execution plan by partially executing part of the code and introducing a new Adaptive Join operator. It also brings opportunities for correction of an execution plan after its creation, depending on runtime parameters and memory usage.

In this chapter, you saw many enhancements to the Transact-SQL language and database engine added in two recent SQL Server versions. Now, it is time to check JSON support in SQL Server 2017.