DEVOPSdigest

To help developers increase the speed and quality of their SQL coding, enhance efficiency, and take advantage of the latest improvements in SQL Server, Redgate has released a major upgrade for its most popular tool, SQL Prompt.

Many individual developers and an increasing number of teams have already discovered the value of SQL Prompt, both as a coding productivity tool and as a way to encourage collaboration in DevOps. Rather than having to work out the correct syntax the hard way, SQL Prompt autocompletes code in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and Visual Studio, and takes care of formatting. It also encourages teams to implement and share good SQL coding standards and practices, and promotes code reuse, improving the quality of the code that reaches production systems

A new ranking algorithm in SQL Prompt v10 makes the code completion feature even smarter. As developers type code, it now gives them the most likely autocomplete suggestions first, based on what code has already been typed, and suggestions that have been used previously.

Early feedback has already been very favorable. As Piotr Lipski, Business Intelligence Consultant at BearingPoint, comments: “After enabling the ranked option, I am getting the right thing on the very top of the IntelliSense list almost every time. Not sure what voodoo your developers put behind this but it saves me a lot of scrolling and clicking.”

To improve the quality of coding, another new feature in SQL Prompt also auto-fixes errors in code. As users write code, SQL Prompt runs static code analysis in the background, checking the code for compliance with its built-in set of rules, and highlighting potential code issues and pitfalls. For rules where code simply needs to be corrected, SQL Prompt will auto-fix the code and remove the issue.

This is especially useful when reviewing legacy code that needs to be brought up to standard. By cutting the time required to deal with trivial issues, it allows teams to focus on the more serious ones which might cause performance, reliability or instability problems.

And in response to user feedback, two of the most popular requests have been addressed by enhancing the tab history feature in the SSMS version of SQL Prompt. Many developers have multiple tabs open in SSMS, particularly when they are resolving complex problems. The feature already lets users save, preview, rename and restore tabs. It now allows tabs that contain code that is needed often to be bookmarked, and groups tabs by date to make them easier to find.

Finally, any tool that strives to help teams adopt SQL standards and current best practices can only do so if it adapts continually to support advances in the underlying database platform, SQL Server. SQL Prompt 10 supports all of the significant T-SQL enhancements introduced in SQL Server 2019, the release of which was announced at Microsoft Ignite on 4 November. Users can now, for example, assign data sensitivity classifications to their columns using the new ADD SENSITIVITY CLASSIFICATION command.

Existing users of SQL Prompt can start using the new functionality immediately by updating to the latest version using the Check for Updates link in the Help menu. New users can explore the feature by downloading a fully-functional trial version of the software from the Redgate website. Once installed, SQL Prompt will appear in the standard menu of SSMS or Visual Studio and can be used just like any other feature of the IDE.