Simplicity
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I saw the Red Gate Simple Tool Contest this week and was intrigued. After all, the first photo shown is of a large camping vehicle of some sort, not exactly what I'd call a simple tool. Still it's a neat idea though I'd rather have some other simple tool, like a band saw 🙂
But it got me thinking. After all, there are 6 simple machines that form the basis for most any tool. Do you remember the wheel, the lever, the pulley, the screw, the wedge, and the inclined plane. These are the simplest tools there are out there, though admittedly these aren't all that useful for the SQL Server DBA.
Still it was interesting and since it's a poll Friday...
What's SQL Server tool do you like?
Define that how you wish. What tool do you think is the most useful, best value, a must have in your virtual tool box?
That's an interesting one for me. Being in the middle of trying to learn and write about SQL Server 2005, this has got me in the midst of a transition. If this were 2 years ago when I still worked at Peoplesoft, I think that I'd be looking at Query Analyzer as the tool I think I use more often and has the most value for me. I lived in those two tools, having it open the majority of the time, probably every day , on my desktop.
As I move into SQL Server 2005, however, I think that BOL 2005 might be the invaluable tool. There's still so much to learn and so little information collected out there on the web. Most of the experts are writing books and while BOL is still woefully incomplete in many areas, it's a great starting place for syntax and possibilities to work with SS2K5.
Steve Jones
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We'd make terrible eye witnesses. You saw the vehicle as the tool, I saw what looked like open end wrenches held by the person as the tool.
I use Query Analyzer daily. Not sure what I'd do without it.
Greg H -
Hi Steve,
Nice editorial, although I have to point out that there are actually only three fundamental machines - the wheel, the lever, and the inclined plane. The pulley is an application of the wheel, and both the wedge and screw are applications of the inclined plane.
Sorry to be so ridiculously picky, but I was a mechanical engineer before I was a programmer...
And, yeah, although it hardly qualifies as simple, Query Analyzer is the sine qua non of SQL Server development in my book.
Michael
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C8H10N4O2
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Years ago while working as an apprentice carpenter, the carpenter that I worked for would always say "Don't forget Mr. Fulcrum" when he saw me trying to figure out how to get something done. Query Analyzer falls into the same category as Mr. Fulcrum in my opinion.
Larry Cobb
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LOL - the vehicle does tend to dominate the picture so the tools are easy to overlook - wish he had a composite leatherman (or some such) though - much more versatile and one that is ported by half the people I know...
As for SQL Server, I would add SSC as one of the tools and rank it right on top along with QA - BOL is a very close second!
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
1.) PromptSQL is the best SQL tool I have. I've looked for a way to stop typing SELECT * FROM 50 times a day, with PromptSQL I've found out how. I learned about the product right here at SQLServerCentral. Steve had reviewed it.
2.) DBAG; it builds my standard data access stored procs for me.
One problem, no levers, pulleys, ramps, etc are involved. Steve does this still qualify as a tool?
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Query Analyzer hands down. Show Execution Plan option specifically. The version 7 one, 2005 still has me looking around for an old friend.
Student of SQL and Golf, Master of Neither -
Gotta say at the moment QA although previously I spent a lot of time with Red-Gate tools and loved em, made my life so much easier and saved me hours and hours.
Simon
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QA for sure, and I agree with jwainz that PromptSQL is a fantastic and "life-simplifying" tool - I appreciate having found it right here at SQLServerCentral.com
Here's another simple tool that I find very useful:
SET STATISTICS IO ON
GO
[ some pokey SQL statement]
SET STATISTICS IO OFF
GO
Often, just using this in troubleshooting a slow query or stored procedure will do the trick - as it outputs the number of scans, reads, etc for each table involved. Most of the time, I'll see that one table is undergoing lots of read and realize, DUH - I need an index here.
And while I'm very fond of Profiler, you can often use the SET STATISTICS IO statement and have your answer in the time it takes to open Profiler
-- SteveR
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BOL no doubt. As an applications support engineer the rare times I have to use things like update and Delete having an on-line syntax quick reference is a great time saver.
Although I actually use Query Analyser daily I consider it largely to be a SQL delivery mechanism and could easily use osql instead. BOL I appreciate having that little bit more.
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<Parrot>
Rrrwwaaakk...Query Analyzer
</Parrot>
Unfortunatly, QA got bundled into Management Studio on 2005, so now, insted of being a simple, light weight, tool, it's a tool you have to dig out of a bloated UI every time you want to do a quick select.
After that Books on Line. In 2000, BoL was an amazing repository of knowledge; I'm fairly certain that the team who wrote the BoL were killed shortly afterwards, as Microsoft has not managed to put out that good of documentation again. The 2005 BoL are OK, but don't seem quite as nice as the 2000 version.
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My Logitech wireless keyboard.
I have about 150 different queries that I run often all programmed into different key binds. I keep a "simple" excel spreadsheet open in the background for those binds that I use less often.
Q.A. is nice but limited in certain areas that I find too annoying to overlook so I've built myself a .Net based tool that performs the majority of functions I would normally do with Q.A. When the need arises, I have a key bind for Q.A. as well ... F12 with ye ole Jolly Roger sticker on it.
;P
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ApexSQL Edit. Intellisense and source code integration. I love it.
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I noticed a lot of folks list QA as a favorite tool. Now that it is bundled into Mgmt Studio what is the consensus on Intellisense missing for T-SQL? Anybody miss it?
Curtis
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I usually use this when I'm optimising queries.
set
statistics io on
set statistics time on
go
BEGIN
TRANSACTION
select
count(*) from sysobjects group by xtype
--exec <sp been tested>
ROLLBACK
TRANSACTION
set
statistics io off
set statistics time off
go
I find that, on my dev server, the time that a query takes can differ quite a bit from one moment to another, due to what all the other developers are doing. Hence, I run the above set with the execution plan and I can see how intensive the query that I'm testing is vs the, fairly constant, select from sysobjects.
The rollback is there so that I can run the same query several times and not have it throw an error the second time through with a duplicate key or similar.
I'm disappointed that the execution plan in Management Studion rounds the query cost to a whole number. QA showed it to 2 decimal places
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverabilityWe walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
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