SQL Complete is an add-in for Visual Studio similar to its native IntelliSense but is a long way better. The tool provides more extended and enhanced autocomplete, refactoring, and formatting capabilities as compared to the IntelliSense technology. Read on to find out the prevailing advantages of dbForge SQL Complete.
SQL Complete automatically generates aliases after you type the name of an SQL object, and you can later refer to that object by the alias. Moreover, SQL Complete allows you to create custom aliases and also map them using alias condition masks. IntelliSense does not have the option of automatic alias generation.
SQL Complete knows the database you are working in and suggest a list of its objects sorted by type and alphabetically, whereas IntelliSense just shows the databases based on your current connection.
Clicking one identifier will highlight all other occurrences of this identifier throughout the entire SQL document, which is not the case with Visual Studio's native IntelliSense.
After you type JOIN, SQL Complete offers all possible joining combinations with table names and joining conditions based on foreign keys of the current table. You don't need to manually type the entire JOIN clause, just select the necessary one from the list of suggestions. As you can see on the screenshots below, IntelliSense only offers the list of databases.
OUTER APPLY instead of APPLY, ORDER BY instead of ORDER - don't settle for less with SQL Complete, you get not just individual words, but entire code phrases. You will be prompted the ON NULL attribute after a created scalar-valued function, context-based prompts for data types and primary keys of server objects in the CREATE TYPE statement. At the same time, IntelliSense will make you manually type the entire phrase.
The Parameter Info feature of prompts the details of parameters used in the function you type. This information is neatly displayed in the Parameter Info hint shown right in the editor. In contrast, no such info is shown as you type the function name if you use IntelliSense.
With SQL Complete, you get basic information about a database object right off the bat simply by hovering over the object identifier. A table hint shows column names and data types, additional column properties, primary, unique, and foreign keys. An asterisk hint after the SELECT statement shows a list of columns. An alias hint in the FROM statement shows a table/expression with a column list, and much more. IntelliSense's object info hint shortly describes an object without any extra details.
Pretty useful info that SQL Complete shows for a table identifier includes a list of columns with data types and an estimated number of rows it contains. These details are also shown if you hover over the table alias. IntelliSense is missing this one too.
A very helpful feature Insert Semicolons is accessible from the pop-up menu of SQL Complete, or you can simply press Ctrl+B, Ctrl+С and semicolons will be added throughout the document where required. With IntelliSense, you will need to type them by hand, which is rather time-consuming.
When you type the SELECT statement, SQL Complete gives you an ability to select multiple columns from the pop-up dialog box and insert them in the code at once instead of typing them manually as would be the case with IntelliSense.
The described superior features of SQL Complete are just a few of a great many of capabilities you may take advantage of when using the tool within Visual Studio. Just try it yourself and you will be surprised at the speed of coding you are capable of.
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dbForge SQL Complete prompting capability
MS Visual Studio default IntelliSense
