With regards to deprecation, what does "Three-part and four-part column references in SELECT list" mean? Does this mean that if you have a Linked Server that you will not be able to code the following ---> [Instance Name].[Database Name].dbo.[Table Name] ? http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143729(SQL.100).aspx Category Deprecated feature Replacement Feature name Feature ID Transact-SQL Three-part and four-part column references in SELECT listTwo-part names is the standard-compliant behavior.More than two-part column name
I'm going to guess it means you can't do this anymore:select master.sys.objects.name from master.sys.objects; instead you will have to do one of these: select objects.name from master.sys.objects;select name from master.sys.objects;
For ease of coding and improved readability of code in any version of SQL Server, use aliases for your two- and three-part object names. The reason why you should always use two-part object names is that this improves the chance of SQL finding an appropriate execution plan in cache (because if the owner is not mentioned, then each time SQL must evaluate which object is the intended one, before executing). select mso.name from master.sys.objects mso