Under Appreciated Features

SQLServerCentral is supported by Red Gate Software Ltd.

Popular Topics

Home

Members

Calendar

Who's On

Home » SQLServerCentral.com » Editorials » Under Appreciated Features

68 posts, Page 2 of 7

««1 2 3 4 5 »»»

Under Appreciated Features

Rate Topic

Display Mode

Topic Options

Author

Message

tony.hayes

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 6:43 AM

Grasshopper

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, October 14, 2011 12:52 PM
Points: 14, Visits: 190

Sometimes the simplest things are the most useful - my favorite feature of SQL 2005 : the ability to filter in the object explorer. We have several databases with thousands of Queries and being able to jump to (or close to depending on how specific the filter) the right query without scrolling through an endless list saved me loads of time.

Post #1036493

SQLNightOwl

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 6:54 AM

SSC-Enthusiastic

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Monday, April 22, 2013 3:55 PM
Points: 179, Visits: 391

I don't think you can overlook the usefulness of bcp and/or bulk insert. They're frequently overlooked in favor of SSIS. Many times SSIS is overkill for loading/producing simple files.

I have a love/hate thing going with intellisence.

On the wish list is the ability to bundle procedures and functions into a class (similar to oracle packages).

--Paul Hunter

Post #1036500

shaycullen

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 6:58 AM

Valued Member

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 4:05 AM
Points: 50, Visits: 128

I have to say I am a big fan of Tuning Advisor. Some of the databases I work with are an absolute nightmare for performance and the nature of the company means we always need our data fast, (it's disheartening for users and reflects bad on me when things are slow). This is where I find Tuning advisor to come up trumps! Smile

Post #1036507

mister.magoo

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 7:05 AM

Ten Centuries

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 4:46 PM
Points: 1,287, Visits: 3,850

+1 for filtering in the Object Explorer of SSMS

+1 for partition functions

+1 for execution plans (both graphical and xml)

New ones - not mentioned so far.

XQUERY - Processing xml has improved a lot, it still has some way to go, but is much better.

FOR XML PATH - just for the ability to concatenate strings

Query Optimiser - That is one major bit of kit - without it we would all be wallowing in SQL 7 hell.

SSC - not strictly a part of SQL server - but certainly integral to my use of SS.

MM

Post #1036509

Steph Locke

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 7:09 AM

SSC-Enthusiastic

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 9:17 AM
Points: 127, Visits: 588

It might not sound like much but being able to highlight a string and press F1 to get help on the selected text is absolutely awesome in SSMS- it's not something you notice until you have to use MySQLs workbench or query browser and this functionality doesn't exist.

All those times when the order of the arguments in an arcane function are a bit hazy, or when you need to know how it handles nulls and other little bits of trivia and you get it at the press of a button! An instantaneous answer on it is truly invaluable. On MySQL, it's open up the net, navigate to their webpage, navigate to the right section or use their hideously slow search engine and keep scrolling down until you find what you're looking for, 5 minutes later and you only just remember what you were looking for in the first place.

Post #1036511

TravisDBA

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 7:14 AM

Ten Centuries

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Thursday, May 09, 2013 9:23 AM
Points: 1,288, Visits: 2,996

The Data Collector and CMS (Central Management Servers) both make a DBA's daily life much easier but I am very surprised how many people are not taking advantage of them. BigGrin

"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ... BigGrin

Post #1036513

David Benoit

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 7:16 AM

SSCrazy

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 8:26 AM
Points: 2,063, Visits: 3,440

As Andy already mentioned, missing indexes in the graphical plan is a huge plus. They are usually pretty accurate or pretty close making it pretty helpful.

I will have to say that sparse columns, for those that have a lot of data, can be a pretty well overlooked feature. There can be some great savings there if the situation is right.

David

@SQLTentmaker
SQL Tentmaker
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” - Jim Elliot

Post #1036517

GSquared

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 7:20 AM

SSCoach

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Monday, May 06, 2013 1:09 PM
Points: 15,439, Visits: 9,569

The XML tools are what I see used the least where they could be used more. Both XQuery and For XML have a myriad of uses and improvements over prior tools. But I still see posts in the SQL 2008 forums here where people are instatiating XML objects using the SQL 2000 system procs.

Filtered indexes are definitely a good feature. Work beautifully on large tables with bit fields that need to be filtered by routinely.

There are plenty of others, I'm sure.

- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread

"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

Post #1036518

rclark-1124819

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 7:23 AM

Forum Newbie

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Thursday, May 02, 2013 1:00 PM
Points: 3, Visits: 60

The absolute best, Pivots and for XML path to concat strings.

Oh, and replace...etc.....

Post #1036522

fthiemonge

Posted Friday, December 17, 2010 7:33 AM

Forum Newbie

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 7:50 AM
Points: 5, Visits: 51

I'm a big fan of making my own templates in the template explorer. Not many people in my office use them but they are a huge help getting you jump started when writing new code. Being a developer I only have templates for sprocs, tables, and functions, but I can see them being just as useful for other objects. One thing I wish they would contain is some sort of looping interface where for example I could have it prompt me for details regarding all of a new sproc's parameters. When writing the template I don't know how many params a given sproc may have but I know for each I'll need a name, data type, default (optional), input/output type (optional), and description for my header comment. It would be nice to say for a given sproc I have 10 parameters (or 10 grant statements, or whatever, just X number of something that fits a pattern), then have it automatically prompt me for this detail about each member. Maybe they'll provide such functionality in a later version.

Post #1036530

« Prev Topic | Next Topic »

68 posts, Page 2 of 7

««1 2 3 4 5 »»»

Permissions