sys.database_files / sys.filegroups VS sys.sysfiles / sys.sysfilegroups

These catalog views seem to show the exact same data. What is the point of having multiple system views that seem to show the same thing?

Here is how I proved it is the same data:

select
    fil.name as [FileName],
    fg.name as GroupName
from sys.database_files fil
inner join sys.filegroups fg
on fil.data_space_id = fg.data_space_id

select 
    fil.name as [FileName],
    fg.groupname as GroupName
from sys.sysfiles fil
inner join sys.sysfilegroups fg
on fil.groupid = fg.groupid

Almost always, backward compatibility. Often for end user compatibility but also for internal purposes.

I'd swear I was reading an article earlier this week that mentioned one of the old views, possibly sysfiles, having been 99% removed during SQL2005 development but the final 1% proved to difficult/risky to eliminate.

As a general rule, target the most recent versions of any system tables/views in your scripts, they're more likely to still be there in subsequent releases.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#5283, answer score: 3