NEW DATATYPES V2K
Microsoft has introduced new datatypes in the SQL Server 2000 version. 
They are the bigint, sql_variant, and table datatypes.
The bigint datatype is just what it implies. It is an 8-byte integer 
giving the range of -2^63 to 2^63-1 or -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 
through 9,223,372,036,854,775,807. Compare this to what was the largest 
int datatype in v7.0 where int is -2^31 to 2^31-1 or -2,147,483,648 
through 2,147,483,647. The v7.0 type consumed only 4 bytes for storage.
The sql_variant datatype is designed to hold any other value from any 
other datatype except text, ntext, image, timestamp, and another 
sql_variant. This is useful if you have a need to store values of 
differing datatypes in the same column.
The most notable datatype is table, which is used to store results of a 
function as well as being defined as a local variable. Since this type 
is used to store results from a user-defined function, it can also be 
the return type of the function. This is one of the most significant 
aspects about the new table datatype. Note, however, that you cannot 
use this datatype in the definition of a column within a table or as a 
parameter to a stored procedure or function.
Checkout SQL Server 2000 Books Online or MSPress Inside SQL Server 2000 
for more information regarding these new datatypes.
http://click.online.com/Click?q=c3-x1sCQJLyNWWILEQI5gdWNccLHdRR 
http://click.online.com/Click?q=b6-llgUQCKxBLe1jZDv_eWRXUDJWdRR 
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