Use of .net Assemblies in SQL Server 2005

Question

I've recently discovered that it's possible to place .net assemblies on SQL Server >=2005 servers so that .net functions can be called in T/SQL statements.

I wondered what uses people found for these and how they perform?

Answer 1

The first general purpose use for the CLR in SQL 2005 I created was a SQL 2005 assembly that has a variety of functions that perform string operations and pattern matches using regular expressions. The native string functions in SQL 2005 can be augmented so that you can validate common formats like phone numbers or credit card numbers or perform ad-hoc regular expressions within stored procedures.

For deterministic user defined functions, I have found the SQL CLR support to be very performant.