Blah, blah, blah.. I haven’t been blogging in forever I hear you say. Well, as is with just about everyone – I’ve been busy. The new job panned out extremely well and I’m very happy and otherwise have been tied up working hard. Life is good.
So I discovered a new tool recently called SQL Complete by Devart. Now, if you know anything about them.. they make pretty good products and also have reasonable prices. I’ve been using their free version of CodeCompare for quite awhile now with Visual Studio and it’s miles above others that I’ve tried (esp. the built on TFS comparison tool!). So their software quality is definitely high!
And that brings us to SQL Complete – I’ve been trying out this application and it’s definitely a metric ton better than the built in IntelliSense in SSMS – not only does it update and improve SSMS, it also integrates into Visual Studio (2010, though others are supported).
One feature in particular that I find absolutely terrific – you can configure document formatting! I work with a lot of ugly stored procedures – and with a simple command, it pretties up my SQL.
The only complaint that I have so far (and I haven’t reported this to support) is that it appends “dbo.'” in front of everything, regardless of the option I select. Otherwise, I don’t have a single complaint. It’s really nice having a complete list of columns/tables/etc. popup while I’m typing, with field types and lengths. SQL Complete beats the built in SSMS IntelliSense, hands down.
All-in-all, SQL Complete is a great tool and I whole heartedly recommend it. Their free version doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of the paid ($99) version, but definitely assists. One of my favorite features – you can configure the time to display its IntelliSense ! Without, SSMS would freqently pop-up the wrong thing at the wrong time immediately after typing something. With the configuration settings in SQL Complete you’re able to control that.
I’m definitely adding this to my useful tools list, and I wish I could afford all of their other tools (Query Builder, Schema/Data Compare, Data Studio, I’m looking at you guys!).
URL: http://www.devart.com/dbforge/sql/sqlcomplete/
- Matthew
