We are pleased to announce the release of Microsoft.Data.SqlClient 7.0.1, the first servicing update to the 7.0 line. This patch addresses several compatibility fixes reported by the community after the 7.0.0 GA release.
Install or update from NuGet:
dotnet add package Microsoft.Data.SqlClient --version 7.0.1
Full release notes: 7.0.1 Release Notes
What's in this release
SqlBulkCopy fixes for SQL Server 2016 and Azure Synapse
Two separate issues affected SqlBulkCopy on older or specialized SQL Server engines:
- SQL Server 2016 compatibility -- SqlBulkCopy operations failed with Invalid column name 'graph_type' because the column metadata query referenced a column introduced in SQL Server 2017. The query now uses dynamic SQL so the graph_type reference is not compiled on versions that lack the column. (#3714)
- Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pools -- The column-list query used a variable-assignment pattern that Synapse does not support. The driver now detects Synapse (engine edition 6) and uses STRING_AGG instead, while preserving the variable-assignment fallback for SQL Server 2016 compatibility. (#4149)
Vector column type metadata
SqlDataReader.GetFieldType() and GetProviderSpecificFieldType() previously returned typeof(byte[]) for vector float32 columns instead of typeof(SqlVector<float>). These methods now follow the same type-determination logic as GetValue(), returning the correct vector type. (#4104)
Missing System.Data.Common dependency on .NET Framework
The inbox System.Data.Common assembly on .NET Framework predates APIs such as IDbColumnSchemaGenerator. Without the NuGet package dependency, consumers hit CS0012 compilation errors when using these types through Microsoft.Data.SqlClient. The package now explicitly depends on System.Data.Common v4.3.0 for .NET Framework targets. (#4063)
User Agent TDS extension enabled unconditionally
The Switch.Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.EnableUserAgent AppContext switch has been removed. The driver now always sends User Agent information during login. (#4124)
Type forwards for extracted Azure authentication types
Type forwards have been added from the core Microsoft.Data.SqlClient assembly to public types that moved to the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.Extensions.Abstractions package in 7.0.0: SqlAuthenticationMethod, SqlAuthenticationParameters, SqlAuthenticationProvider, SqlAuthenticationProviderException, and SqlAuthenticationToken. This ensures binary compatibility for assemblies compiled against earlier versions of Microsoft.Data.SqlClient. (#4067)
Community contributions
Both of the SqlBulkCopy fixes in this release were driven by community contributor edwardneal:
- SQL Server 2016 fix -- Edward authored the original PR (#3719) that rewrote the column metadata query to use dynamic SQL, preventing the graph_type column reference from being compiled on servers that lack it. The fix was recreated on an internal branch (#4092) to enable CI pipeline testing against SQL Server 2016 and 2017.
- Azure Synapse fix -- Edward identified and fixed (#4176) the incompatibility with Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pools, where the variable-assignment concatenation pattern used to build the column list is not supported. His fix detects Synapse via SERVERPROPERTY('EngineEdition') and switches to STRING_AGG, while preserving the variable-assignment fallback for SQL Server 2016. He manually validated the fix against SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2025, and an Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pool.
We are grateful for Edward's continued contributions to SqlClient. Community involvement like this directly improves the experience for all SqlClient users.
Getting started
If you are new to Microsoft.Data.SqlClient, check out the documentation. For users of System.Data.SqlClient, see the porting cheat sheet.
If you encounter any issues, please report them on the GitHub repository.
Microsoft