Indexed views for increased performance and flexibility are used instead of aggregation tables for ROLAP partitions if the partition's source data is stored in SQL Server 2000 and if certain criteria are met. For more information, see Indexed Views for ROLAP Partitions.

Default Measures

Default measures can be specified for each cube and varied by role to control end users' default views of cubes. For more information, see Properties Pane and Custom Rules in Dimension Security.

Table Aliases

In Cube Editor and Dimension Editor you can specify table aliases. For more information, see Schema Tab in Cube Editor and Schema Tab in Dimension Editor.

Server Enhancements

Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 introduces several server improvements and new features.

XML Support

You can return data in XML format from queries and stored procedures. These queries or stored procedures can be executed using URLs or templates over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Additionally, XML can also be used to insert, delete, and update values in the database. For more information, see XML Architecture.

User-defined Functions

You can extend the programmability of Transact-SQL by creating your own Transact-SQL functions. A user-defined function can return either a scalar value or a table. For more information, see SQL Functions.

Indexed Views

Indexed views can significantly improve the performance of an application where queries frequently perform certain joins and/or aggregations. An indexed view allows indexes to be created on views, where the result set of the view is stored and indexed in the database. Existing applications do not need to be modified in order to take advantage of the performance improvements with indexed views. For more information, see SQL Views.

New Data Types

SQL Server 2000 introduces three new data types. bigint is an 8-byte integer type. sql_variant is a type that allows the storage of data values of different data types. The new table type allows applications to temporarily store results for later use. It is supported for variables, and as the return type for user-defined functions. For more information, see Data Types and Table Structures.

INSTEAD OF and AFTER Triggers

INSTEAD OF TRIGGERS are triggers that are executed instead of the triggering action (for example, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE). They can also be defined on views, in which case they greatly extend the types of updates a view can support. AFTER triggers fire after the triggering action. SQL Server 2000 introduces the ability to specify which AFTER triggers fire first and last. For more information, see Triggers.

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