I know that a lot of vendors like to write for the lowest common denominator (i.e. SQL 2000) but really folks it’s gone too far. I’m sick of cracking open vendor code that’s certified for SQL 2008 and seeing things like IMAGE and TEXT data types. Microsoft deprecated these things back when they released SQL 2005 (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms143729(v=SQL.90).aspx under Textpointers). Why are you persisting these things six years later?

I bring this up because I’ve come across further egregious usage of these data types in vendor code yet again. The vendor in question? Microsoft.

Yes, that’s right, the folks that deprecated the data type six years ago is still using it to a large extent within the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB databases that support SQL Server Reporting Services. Seriously Microsoft? Can you please get with the plan and fix this nonsense?

The following query, run against the ReportServer database will show 14 different tables (31 columns) using a variety of NTEXT and IMAGE data types.

select st.name as TableName, t.name as DataType, sc.name as ColumnName 

    from sys.types t 

        inner join sys.columns sc

            on t.system_type_id = sc.system_type_id

        inner join sys.tables st

            on sc.object_id = st.object_id

where 

    t.name in ('image', 'text', 'ntext')

order by 

    st.name, t.name

I have filed a Connect item asking Microsoft to fix this. Please go vote for it at https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/714117/ssrs-using-deprecated-data-types-in-its-databases and help us rid the world of this old stuff.