SQL Scripting Tool That Beats MS Query Analyzer?

I'm using MS Query Analyzer (as part of SQL Server 2000) to write T-SQL scripts to pull data out of a DB. This involves querying some tables, iterating through the results (using a cursor), some basic processing of the results and putting the processed data into another table. This is working pretty well as I can view the tables and stored procedures and edit/run the scripts against them all in Query Analyzer.

The main issue I have is the script editing kinda sux. It's pretty much notepad with syntax highlighting. There's very little understanding of the databases I'm scripting against. And none of the other programming aids that most IDEs provide, eg. code completion on keywords and database table and column names would be very handy.

My question is: are there any tools that provide a better T-SQL scripting environment, while maintaining the same (or better) level of integration with SQL Server? Free/open source tools would be preferred, but commerical ones would also be considered.

I must say I did wonder if SQL Server 2005 or 2008 improved on this, so I'll cop the smiley. In my defence I did search on this, but didn't find the "management studio". I'll see if we can upgrade.SQL Prompt looks interesting, but seems to require SQL Server 2005 or 2008, but it's not clear.

dave 2009-07-20 02:49:04

Personally I feel that MS did a very bad job on the intellisense, and especially the word-completion feature, in management studio.

Brimstedt 2009-07-20 05:35:51

SQL Prompt from Red Gate looks very cool in its product demo. It starts at $195 though.

dave 2009-07-20 06:19:09

SQL Prompt enhances SQL Server Management Studio 2005, 2008, Query Analyzer and Visual Studio. It will function against SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, including Express editions.

David Atkinson 2009-10-21 18:13:32

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out. This also lead me to LINQPad which I'll check out too - although they charge for autocompletion.

dave 2009-07-20 02:52:24

I downloaded QueryExpress and the installer failed to run and issued an error message. So no joy there. I found the related project QueryExPlus on SourceForge - supposedly a fork with improvements. It installed and run, but looks pretty basic. QA would appear to be superior, but this tool has the advantage of not requiring a MS SQL Server license to use.

dave 2009-07-20 05:40:05

ansaurus

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SQL Scripting Tool That Beats MS Query Analyzer?

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