If you are looking for Intellisense for your SQL statements, look no further then SQL Prompt by RedGate, and the folks at RedGate just announced that you will be able to download SQL Prompt free of charge until Sept. 1, 2006 (with no timebombs or restrictions). SQL Prompt will work with Microsoft Query Analyzer, SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio .NET 2003, SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager, UltraEdit32.
There is still room for improvement with this app, but considering it is free, and it does enable Intellisense for your SQL, I can't really complain. I'd rather have Intellisense built right into SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, but until then, this will do quite nicely. Actually, I do know of a couple developers what would love SQL Intellisense built right into Visual Studio so that they can create better dynamic SQL, but that may be a contridication in terms (better dynamic SQL). Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that sometimes you need to write dynamic SQL, but if it is such a big problem that you need a tool, you might want to rethink why you are so reliant on dynamic SQL, and not using some sort of code gen'd SQL.
Oh, and if you are doing any SQL Server development work and you are not using RedGate's other SQL products (like SQL Compare, SQL Data Compare, SQL Packager) you are definitely doing things the hard way. There other products make my job as a SQL Developer a much easier one. I know that most seasoned SQL DBAs probably have their own custom built compare or packaging tools, but you really need to check these out. Odds are good that the RedGate tools are better, and cheaper then supporting your own toolsets.
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