Voice of the DBA

Tag: Redgate

  • Getting My Alias in #SQLPrompt

    I got a tweet after my SQL Prompt formatting piece that said a user would be interested in upgrading from v5 if “as ‘Alias’” was transformed into “’Alias’ = “.

    Well, in v7.3, this is in there, and I didn’t realize it. You can clearly see this in the formatting actions options, which is a place I didn’t think to look.

    2017-01-17-09_00_38-sql-prompt-options

    Does this work? It sure does. Let’s examine a query you might get from a VCS or a colleague. Suppose you’re working in the new WideWorldImporters database.

    2017-01-04-08_39_52-SQLQuery3.sql-local_SQL2016.WideWorldImporters-PLATO_Steve-74_-Microso.jpg

    You prefer to see the actual columns returned in the result set at the front of the query, with an alias = format. That’s what I prefer as well, and so I want to have the column list shown as:

    PrimaryContactFullName = p.FullName,
    PrimaryContactPreferredName = p.PreferredName

    A quick CTRL+K, Y and I see this.

    2017-01-17-09_11_08-sqlquery18-sql-local_sql2016-wideworldimporters-plato_steve-70_-micros

    My aliases have moved.

    This is a great feature for those of you that need consistent formatting. There are other alias options if you prefer the alias at the end.

    Update: I originally had this as single quoted aliases, but as pointed out, that format is deprecated, so I wouldn’t use it.

    And if you want to change this back, you can have a second formatting preference that you choose to reformat code before sending it back to someone else.

    Give SQL Prompt a try today.

  • Reminder: Extending DevOps Practices to SQL Server Databases with Redgate

    I’m hosting a  new webinar on the DLM tools from Redgate Software and database DevOps. Tomorrow, Tues, Jan 17, at noon EST, Arneh Eskandari, a great sales engineer, will be demoing the tools and techniques to deploy changes.

    You can register here and I’ll talk to you on tomorrow.

  • The Top 20 SQL Toolbelt Tips

    Redgate produces some great software, and I’m glad that I get to use all of them as a developer and DBA. I use many of the tools each week, some daily, but I constantly find that there are plenty of features, tips, and tricks that I don’t know about.

    At SQL in the City last year, I watched Tom Austin present a session where I learned a few things that will make me more productive.

    The one that I need to start incorporating into my work is looking for all the references to an object with SQL Search. A quick check means that I won’t commit changes without considering all of the other objects impacting by development,

    Watch all the tips below.

  • Installing the SQL Clone Agent and the VC++ Runtime

    I was trying to get SQL Clone working recently and had an issue with the Agent. If you haven’t looked at SQL Clone, it’s a really cool product from Redgate that’s in beta right now. It will help you build and provision those large dev, test, customer service, etc. environments with full size copies of data without using the space (or time) for the actual files.

    In any case, when I downloaded the agent and ran the installer, I saw this:

    2017-01-12 16_09_57-Redgate SQL Clone Agent

    That struck me as funny because I have all sorts of VC++ runtimes on my machine. In fact, in debugging, I saw all these:

    2017-01-12 16_11_02-Settings

    After the download completed, I got an error.

    2017-01-09 07_57_09-

    This was strange, since I actually had a 14.3 version, but apparently SQL Clone doesn’t realize this is the case. This should be fixed soon, but for now, here’s what to do.

    First, run regedt32.exe. The setup program is checking for an installation in a key. I had the keys in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VC\Runtimes\x64, but not in the Wow6432 node.

    Browse to HKLM\Software\Wow6432\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VC. Here’s what I had:

    2017-01-12 16_15_00-Registry Editor

    Here’s my x64 folder structure:

    2017-01-12 16_15_54-Registry Editor

    In here I have the sub-keys and the “Installed” value.

    Since I know I have a later VC++ runtime, I did this. First, create the “Runtimes” key under VC, then add a “x64” key below that. Inside of x64, add an Installed value as a Reg_DWord with a value of 1. You should see this:

    2017-01-12 16_37_30-Registry Editor

    Now run the SQL Clone Agent installer:

    2017-01-12 16_37_16-SQL Clone Agent Setup

    Everything works.

    If you’d like to learn more about SQL Clone, check out this short video: