SQL Integration and Common Runtime Language

LaRon Walker

Master of Information Technology and Internet Security

March, 2010

SQL integration with other programming languages has changed the way developers code they

solution. Microsoft has paved the way with the creation of common runtime language (CLR). They have

provided this means to code using general-purpose programming that most programmers are familiar

with. By using CLR, Microsoft hopes that this will force developers to change programming techniques,

and divert more of their programming logic directly into their Database Servers design. This will help

reduce the size of the code necessary to access the data, as well as help prevent errors and collisions in

the database. Per Glennan (2005), “the new capabilities should make it simpler and more efficient for

developers to encapsulate business rules within a database. But on the other hand, application logic

embedded in the database will have to be controlled the same way that it was when it was in the

application layer”. With this in mind, it may be easier for developers to write code that accesses data

from databases, thus reducing the code size, which in turn will help with efficiency and performance,

however coding and maintaining this inside of an SQL database will require lots of documentation on

where objects and services are defined.

After researching, I have found there is a lot of skepticism about CLR. Per Brust (2005), “CLR will

be best reserved for two database programming scenarios, creating aggregate functions, and defining

custom data types were data values might have different interpretations or expressions, such as

calendar year quarter vs. a fiscal-year quarter”. You can also use T-SQL for this, which generally will

remain the better programming choice. This is due to T-SQL is optimized for testing, retrieving and
changing large sets of data. Overall, there will be may time where T-SQL is a better choice than CLR, and

we should not be lead to think that just because SQL 2005 has new features, we necessarily have to

divert from the other practices.

References

Silwa, C.(2005, December 12) New Programming Options Pose Dilemma for SQL Server Users

Computerworld. Vol. 39, Iss. 50; pg. 10, 2 pgs Retrieved March 7, 2010 from Proquest database

Hoffer, J., Prescott, M., Topi, H. (2009). MODERN DATABASE MANAGEMENT (9th ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.