This editorial was originally published on Mar 27, 2015. It is being republished as Steve is traveling.

I was asked recently if I thought more people used SSMS or SSDT. I really had no idea, so I thought this would make a good poll.

Do you use SSDT or SSMS for your database work?

I'm sure there are plenty of developers that work on SQL Server from Visual Studio, so if you do that, let us know. Please feel free to pass this along to friends as well. I'm curious what people use.

SSDT grew out of the Data Dude, a project at Microsoft to give us a better development tool for SQL Server. It was a neat project, and I think it produced something that has become very popular because it made database development easier for some people, mostly .NET developers.

However many of us that work with SQL Server have spent most of our time in Management Studio, and while it could use some work, it has become a comfortable environment in which to write T-SQL code. A few of us remember Enterprise Manager, and perhaps a few others still bemoan the demise of isql/w.

I'm wondering if there is a trend here. I've tended to stick with SSMS, but if most of you are using SSDT, perhaps I should invest some time in learning it better. Let us know this week what you use, why, and what advantages it gives you.