Wayne Sheffield

My blog about SQL Server

Have you ever had to run a query on multiple servers? You could connect to each server one by one to run it. Or you could create a script with each instance in it (using the :CONNECT command – see yesterday’s tip). But these are the hard ways of doing it. The easier way is […]

Have you ever had a script where you needed to run parts of it on different instances of SQL Server (for example, to set up database mirroring)? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could just have commands, within the script, to connect to the various servers and run that portion of code? Of […]

Do you have scripts that you need to run frequently, but every time you need to set some different parameters? Are you tired of looking for all of these? Well, Template Variables in SSMS allow you to easily set all of these variables quickly and easily. A template variable is a special notation within a […]

Have you ever had a long script that you are trying to scroll through? Do you wish that you could see a preview of the scroll area to easily see what section you are in? Well, starting in SSMS 2016, you can. Just right-click the vertical scroll bar, and select “Scroll Bar Options…” When you […]

So you’re working with a query that you have loaded from a saved file. And now you want to open the folder up that the file is in… or you want to get the full path for that query file. Thankfully, this is easy to do in SSMS. Just right-click the tab for the query […]

Have you ever been working in SSMS where you need to frequently access one particular script, but you are spending most of your time in other scripts? Starting with SSMS 2016, you can pin a tab to your SSMS Query window pane to make it easier to go back to that script. On the right […]

Have you ever wanted to have two different queries open up at the same time where you could see them, either stacked on top of each other or beside each other? Guess what??? You can easily do this within SSMS. First, open up the two queries into two windows. Then, right-click the tab for one […]

Have you ever wanted to see different parts of the same query window at the same time? Well, in SSMS, it is easy-peazy to split screens! At the top of the vertical scroll bar in your query window is this splitter bar icon with two horizontal lines, and an up / down arrow from it: […]

Since SSMS is built upon Visual Studio, many of the features available to Visual Studio are also available to SSMS. The first one that I want to talk about is Solutions. Are you the type of person that has all of your custom queries in one folder, and finding the particular one that you are […]

Exploring the wonderful case of a missing database backup. I was working on a client’s site today, setting up database backup routines. Part of which is to perform a database backup, and verify that everything went okay. I had Windows Explorer open to the location that the backup was going to. When the backup finished, […]