SQL Server 2005 has great sys.XXX views on the system catalog which I use frequently.
What stumbles me is this: why is there a sys.procedures view to see info about your stored procedures, but there is no sys.functions view to see the same for your stored functions?
Doesn’t anybody use stored functions? I find them very handy for e.g. computed columns and such!
Is there a specific reason sys.functions is missing, or is it just something that wasn’t considered important enough to put into the sys catalog views? Is it available in SQL Server 2008?
I find UDFs are very handy and I use them all the time.
I’m not sure what Microsoft’s rationale is for not including a sys.functions equivalent in SQL Server 2005 (or SQL Server 2008, as far as I can tell), but it’s easy enough to roll your own: