feat: add SQL Server 2025 VECTOR type support

Author: dlevy-msft-sql

.gitignore

@@ -6,11 +6,30 @@
 *.log
 *.swp
 *~
+
+# Test outputs and coverage
 coverage.json
 coverage.txt
 coverage.xml
 testresults.xml
+
+# Test binaries (Go test -c output)
+*.test
+*.test.exe
+
+# Profiling output (Go test -cpuprofile, -memprofile, etc.)
+*.prof
+*.pprof
+*.out
+cpu.out
+mem.out
+
+# Connection strings and secrets
 .azureconnstr
+*.connstr
+.env
+.env.*
+!.env.example
 
 # Example binaries  
 examples/*/simple

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,4 +1,17 @@
 # Changelog
+## 1.9.7
+
+### Features
+
+* Add SQL Server 2025 Vector data type support with `Vector` and `NullVector` types for AI/ML workloads (#306)
+  - Supports float32 vectors up to 1998 dimensions
+  - Supports float16 vectors up to 3996 dimensions (preview feature)
+  - Compatible with `VECTOR_DISTANCE` similarity search functions
+  - See [doc/how-to-use-vectors.md](doc/how-to-use-vectors.md) for usage guide
+* Add `vectortypesupport` connection string parameter to control native vector format
+  - `off` (default): Vectors sent as JSON for backward compatibility
+  - `v1`: Enable optimized binary TDS protocol for vectors (SQL Server 2025+)
+
 ## 1.9.6
 
 ### Features

README.md

@@ -71,6 +71,9 @@ Other supported formats are listed below.
   * `true` (Default) Client attempt to connect to all IPs simultaneously. 
   * `false` Client attempts to connect to IPs in serial.
 * `guid conversion` - Enables the conversion of GUIDs, so that byte order is preserved. UniqueIdentifier isn't supported for nullable fields, NullUniqueIdentifier must be used instead.
+* `vectortypesupport` - Controls native vector type support for SQL Server 2025+. See [How to use Vectors](doc/how-to-use-vectors.md).
+  * `off` (Default) Vectors are sent as JSON strings for backward compatibility.
+  * `v1` Enables optimized binary TDS protocol for vector data.
 
 ### Connection parameters for namedpipe package
 * `pipe`  - If set, no Browser query is made and named pipe used will be `\\<host>\pipe\<pipe>`
@@ -598,6 +601,7 @@ Constrain the provider to an allowed list of key vaults by appending vault host
 * Supports query notifications
 * Supports Kerberos Authentication
 * Supports handling the `uniqueidentifier` data type with the `UniqueIdentifier` and `NullUniqueIdentifier` go types
+* Supports SQL Server 2025 Vector data type for AI/ML workloads with `Vector` and `NullVector` go types. See [How to use Vectors](doc/how-to-use-vectors.md)
 * Pluggable Dialer implementations through `msdsn.ProtocolParsers` and `msdsn.ProtocolDialers`
 * A `namedpipe` package to support connections using named pipes (np:) on Windows
 * A `sharedmemory` package to support connections using shared memory (lpc:) on Windows