April 28, 2012 at 8:36 pm
I wanted to get other's opinions as well as share my own.
I just came across a pretty good product from devArt called SQL Complete that is an add-in for SSMS and VS. It includes upgraded Intellisense (which allows you to replace the Intellisense included with SSMS) and T-SQL formatting tools. This is the first time I have used this product but in the past I have used Sql Prompt from RedGate, which I would consider a competitor. I love RedGate tools because they are solid and are very powerful. However, being on my own, they can be cost prohibitive so I went looking for less expensive alternatives, which is how I came across devArt SQL Complete.
From my testing it looks like both have the same basic functionality. However, I found 2 things that set the devArt product apart from the RedGate tool. First, SQL Complete allows for Intellisense similar to how it works in VS, in that Intellisense will display entries that "contain" the text being entered while Sql Prompt only displays entries that "start with" the text being entered. Second, the cost is a factor in that SQL Complete is $99 for the Standard edition or they offer a FREE edition, yes a FREE edition. devArt is kind enough to display a matrix comparing the 2 editions so you know exactly what is included in each. RedGate only offers 1 edition at $195 and a trial that lasts 14 days.
So, given that info, my preference is the devArt SQL Complete product. What is yours? Has anyone used either of these and maybe could provide some feedback?
<a href="http://www.devart.com/dbforge/sql/sqlcomplete/" target="_blank" >
<img alt="sqlcomplete" src="http://media.linkedin.com/media-proxy/ext?w=100&h=80&hash=G5etneXgiLriHtrNg9hsiBl7cOc%3D&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.devart.com%2Fimages%2Flogos%2Fdbforge-sql-complete-small.jpg">
dbForge SQL Complete - Powerful T-SQL Formatting Tool
</a>
April 30, 2012 at 1:16 am
Hi Jeffrey,
I'll leave any comparison to others, but I just wanted to point out that SQL Prompt now has partial and camel-case style matching, and that there are two editions that can be compared here: http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-prompt/feature-matrix
Thanks,
Justin Caldicott
Product Manager, SQL Productivity Tools
Red Gate
August 7, 2012 at 4:21 am
Hi Justin,
I wanted to upgrade to your latest version, but chose DevArt as your upgrade fee was more than the price we paid for the original version of your software (SQLPrompt).
DevArt SQL Complete has all the features I need at less than a third of the price of SQL Prompt. (Wildcard expanding, table definitions, snippets, etc)
Regards, Ian
December 9, 2014 at 8:30 am
For those considering buying SQL Complete from dbforge DevArt, I'd just like to say that I've been having serious issues with it for the past year and they do not fix them.
1. They override your default database so when you hit "New Query" you are working in a database of their choosing. Be careful! You could be updating a database other than your expected one. They connect to other databases on startup, preventing you from restoring databases you never connected to.
2. When you hit "New Query", run sp_who or something short, and close the window, ALL of SSMS gets completely locked up and you lose all work in all sheets. This is because they create a second connection that takes 40 seconds and somehow it is attached to your new query sheet window. This happens to me every day unless I explicitly look and wait, and wait, and wait.
3. All syntax throughout your whole script must be correct or SQL Complete aborts any attempt to offer completion to the current statement.
4. Cached prompting is rarely up to date and is generally in limbo with what it presents. It is like its always two or three steps behind you.
5. You have to write your statements out of order for it to be somewhat helpful. For example, always write "select * from table1, etc" so that you can use alias prompting back in your select columns list.
6. I tend to jump around and write parts of a SELECT and have it all come together at the end; this doesn't work well with SQL Complete as it gets confused by non-sequentially progressive writing.
7. There is no way to have it offer prompting help on just one statement in a script.
December 10, 2014 at 4:13 am
Hi Bill,
I am just about to purchase SQL Complete (have a discount code so good value) but disappointing to hear that they haven't fixed the issues you have mentioned. Would you mind me sending them your bug list and see what reply I get?
Cheers
qh
December 10, 2014 at 6:29 am
My frustration with SQLComplete is due to being unheard month after month. I submitted these as bugs and enhancements many times. Their consistent canned response is to upgrade to their newest version...which never actually addresses my issues.
I did get value out of their product at first. I went through the 1000+ developers' stored procedures in my project and cleaned up the formatting and added aliases, etc. SQLComplete works well for code that is already written.
My guess is that they are calling Microsoft's sql parser and cannot solve some of the problems I've requested unless they roll their own parser. They are following such strict rules that it diminishes the value of the product for development use. This is similar to a browser not showing a website because of a single unmatched tag somewhere on the page.
When all is said and done, SQLComplete gets in the way with useless dropdown lists more often than it is helpful at completing a sql statement.
December 10, 2014 at 6:48 am
Bill Talada (12/10/2014)
My frustration with SQLComplete is due to being unheard month after month. I submitted these as bugs and enhancements many times. Their consistent canned response is to upgrade to their newest version...which never actually addresses my issues.I did get value out of their product at first. I went through the 1000+ developers' stored procedures in my project and cleaned up the formatting and added aliases, etc. SQLComplete works well for code that is already written.
My guess is that they are calling Microsoft's sql parser and cannot solve some of the problems I've requested unless they roll their own parser. They are following such strict rules that it diminishes the value of the product for development use. This is similar to a browser not showing a website because of a single unmatched tag somewhere on the page.
When all is said and done, SQLComplete gets in the way with useless dropdown lists more often than it is helpful at completing a sql statement.
Have you tried ApexSQL Complete? It's free and works very well.
January 27, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Hello, Jeffrey! Thanks for sharing your experience. I like dbForge SQL Complete too. For those who doubt, I recommend studying this article, it compares the features of both tools in a very detailed way.
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