When you are performance tuning code, you will frequently examine the execution plans to see what is happening. As you change the code, you will look at the execution plan again. However, comparing all the changes is troublesome. Fortunately, comparing query plans has become easy in SSMS (starting in 2016). Just save off the first […]
(2017-2022)
Browsing Posts in SSMS Tips
We all know that we should liberally document our code with comments, so that others (and even yourself) will know what the code is doing down the road. I like to start all of my code off with my classic remark block:
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/****************************************************************************** $SELECTIONSTART$Description of code$SELECTIONEND$ ******************************************************************************* MODIFICATION LOG ******************************************************************************* $DATE(yyyy-MM-dd)$ WGS Initial creation. ******************************************************************************/ |
Note that this is a SQL Prompt snippet, not a snippet from […]
One of the things that I do with my code is to include reference links to what I was doing where applicable. SSMS provides us with a way to navigate directly to these web links, instead of having to copy the link and paste it into your browser. All that is needed for this is […]
Bookmarks are used in SSMS to have SSMS remember selected line positions, and to quickly move between the bookmarks. All of the Bookmark functionality is in the Bookmarks submenu, off of the Edit menu: A bookmark is toggled with the Ctrl+K, Ctrl+K keyboard shortcut, or by using the menu option shown. When the bookmark is […]
There are many editing items in SSMS that makes formatting and navigating your code easier than ever. Most of these Quick Editing Tips that follow are available from the Advanced submenu on the Edit menu: Ctrl+Up/Down Arrow Keys will scroll the window up or down. ALT+Up/Down Arrow Keys will move the selected line(s) up or […]
SSMS supports Outlining, the ability to selective hide blocks of code. This can be very useful, especially when working with large query files. In the following screen shot, the indicated box is what you click to show / hide the selected region. In this case, if I were to click the box (which has a […]
The Object Explorer Details windows (from the View menu, or the keyboard shortcut F7) displays detail information about the objects that are in the selected node in the Object Explorer window. While the Object Explorer Details window does give you some useful information, it can be made better! This is done by adding additional columns […]
If you have a database with hundreds (or thousands) of objects, finding the one that you are looking for in the Object Explorer can be a pain. Thankfully, SSMS allows you to apply filtering criteria to this. Just right-click on the node that you want to filter, select Filter, and then Filter Settings to set […]
Snippets allow you to store and easily reuse TSQL code snippets. To use a snippet, just right-click in the query window and select “Insert Snippet”, or you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K, Ctrl+X. Snippets allow you to store and easily reuse TSQL code snippets. To use a snippet, just right-click in the query window […]
You may have noticed that in many places in SSMS, you can create a new item and SSMS opens up a template for you to fill in – for instance, when creating a new stored procedure. Have you ever wondered where SSMS gets the template from? You can view all of the templates from SSMS’ […]
