SQL Server 2012 New Features

Management Studio   Insert Code Snippets into code in Query Editor   Surround with BEGIN, WHILE or IF code segment in QE   Code Snippets Manager tool   IntelliSence Feature Enhancements
T-SQL Enhancements   PARSE() returns the result of expression translated to requested data type   TRY_CONVERT() returns NULL for invalid conversion   TRY_PARSE() returns NULL if cast fails   FORMAT() function similar to C#   CONCAT() concatenates two or more string values   THROW statement can be used to raise an exception   CHOOSE() returns item at specified index from list of values   IIF returns one of two values based on condition   DATEFROMPARTS() returns a date value for specified year, month, and day   DATETIMEFROMPARTS() returns a datetime value for the specified date and time   EOMONTH() returns the last day of the month that contains the specified date   SEQUENCE Objects   EXECUTE statement can now specify results metadata - WITH RESULT SETS   Ad-hoc Query Paging Implementation - OFFSET AND FETCH   OVER Clause Support Enhanced   Analytic Functions: CUME_DIST, LAST_VALUE , PERCENTILE_DISC, FIRST_VALUE, LEAD, PERCENT_RANK, LAG, PERCENTILE_CONT   Existing LOG() function now has an optional second base parameter   XQuery Functions Are Surrogate-Aware   New and Enhanced Query Optimizer Hints   New and Enhanced Spatial Features   Enhancements to spatial data types   Spatial performance improvements
Database Engine   FileTables   Columnstore Index Feature   Support for 15,000 Partitions by default   UTF-16 Support   Extended Event Enhancements   Metadata Discovery   Statistical Semantic Search   Full-Text Search Enhancements   SQL Server multi-subnet clustering   SMB file share is a supported storage option
SQL Server Installation Center   New edition of SQL Server – SQL Server Business Intelligence   Enterprise Edition: Server/Client Access License (CAL) based licensing   Enterprise Edition: Core-based Licensing   Product Update integrates the latest product updates with the main product installation   Install option for Data Quality Services
SQL Server Configuration Manager   Uses Microsoft Management Console 3.0
Utilities   SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) replaces BIDS   Web Based Visualization - Project Crescent
Administration   SQL Server AlwaysOn High Availability Feature   Indirect Checkpoints Feature   Partially Contained Database   Online Index Create, Rebuild, and Drop Option in SQL Server 2012 for VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX) columns
Security   User Defined Server Level Role
Operations   SQL Server Express LocalDB