SQL Server Intellisense anyone?

July 31st, 2006 by Will Riley

At Red-Gate

Not many addins make me sit up & go WOW, but today I came across one that will definitely make my life alot easier over the coming months. The product is SQL Prompt, and it has the following features:

  • Discoverability in SQL Server query creation
  • Keyword formatting, code snippet integration other extended features
  • FREE until 1st September 2006
  • No time-bombs, no restrictions

Code completion for fast, accurate script building…

I have been trying it out & here are a few screen prints from some simple query building using Northwind…

It’s just like using the VBE intellisense…

Type in SELECT and a space and up pops a list of tables you can connect to

Table Intellisense

select the table you are querying and a list of fields appears

Field Intellisense

We move on… start typing one of the SQL functions and up pops a helper

Function Intellisense

It installed with no problems, took no time at all to configure using the simple but friendly UI

Easy UI

I’d say get it whilst it’s free!! :)

Posted in SQL | 5 comments

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5 comments on this post.

  1. Will Riley:

    August 1st, 2006 at 11:52 am

    Dennis,

    I quite agree. At work we have downloaded it – we already used SQL Compare from these guys but this made my IT guys sit up & beg.

    What a great tool!

    Will

  2. XL-Dennis:

    August 1st, 2006 at 11:45 am

    Will – I’ve been playing around with it for some hours now and I totally agree with You:

    It rocks!

    Since it works well with my favourite tool, UltraEdit32, I can only say excellent!

    Thanks for letting me know about this tool,
    Dennis

  3. Carl Mackinder:

    August 5th, 2006 at 12:23 pm

    Will,

    I just needed to query something so I thought I try it out after seeing this post a couple of days ago. Fantastic ! I needed that.

    Many thanks Will.

    Carl

  4. Will Riley:

    August 7th, 2006 at 4:09 pm

    Hi guys,

    I must admit that whilst I thought this was excellent at first, I am finding that the novelty soon wears off and that it becomes extremely “intrusive” (a bit like satellite navigation in a car) – I seem to be constantly disagreeing with its suggestions….

    I guess if you are new(ish) to either Transact-SQL or to the database schema that you are querying then it is indeed a useful tool. When I first used this a few days ago in the latter (i.e. new to schema) scenario it was indeed a great help.

    Having spent a few days with SQL and more importantly my new reporting database, now that I have gotten used to the schema, this tool has now become pretty annoying and I have been forced to switch it off to avoid raising my blood pressure or becoming violent!

    I find that it’s not nearly as intuitive as, say, intellisense in VB. It sometimes brings up functions when I expect fields or table names and I have found this quite frustrating.

    I guess that it’s a tool that will be a great “getting started” aid, but as with many things, your own knowledge will quickly surpass the tool’s ability to provide useful assistance. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a useful tool, but I think I will only be using it for helping me to find my way around unfamiliar database schema.

  5. XL-Dennis:

    August 26th, 2006 at 3:04 pm

    After working with it from time to time I realize it’s more of a pain then help. In other words I share Your opinion.

    For novise user it’s indeed a nice tool.

    Kind regards,
    Dennis

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