SQL Server 2008 T-SQL - you learn something new everyday

It's the little thing that make you smile.  I am at TechEd this week at an excellent session by Bob Beauchemin on the T_SQL enhancements in SQL Server 2008.

He popped up a slide with the += operator which allows you add a number to itself in common with many other languages so:

@MyNumber += 2 would add to the number (this also works for  minus, multiplication and divide).

Somebody asks Bob "Does that work with strings as well?"

Let's check that Bob says.

declare @myName varchar(12) = 'Bob'

set @myName += ' Foo'

Print @myName

that returns 'Bob Foo' which is what you'd expect but good to know.

So top marks to Bob for his presentation style, and to the product guys for making the new function consistent.