Bloody hell... I looked this up as I was certain it couldn't still be the case. But yes, it is!
This was logged as an issue on Connect in 2008, [1] and Microsoft's response was:
"Thanks for your suggestion. We are considering adding support for UTF8 in the next version of SQL Server. It is not clear at this point if it will be a new type or integrate it with existing types. We understand the pain in terms of integrating with UTF8 data and we are looking at ways to effectively resolve it."
This was logged as an issue on Connect in 2008, [1] and Microsoft's response was:
"Thanks for your suggestion. We are considering adding support for UTF8 in the next version of SQL Server. It is not clear at this point if it will be a new type or integrate it with existing types. We understand the pain in terms of integrating with UTF8 data and we are looking at ways to effectively resolve it."
1. https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/362...