Setting Styles

You can set the formatting for candidates that you insert in your query editor. You can also specify the case settings for keywords, built-in function names, and data types.

To set the style options, on the SQL Prompt menu in your query editor, click Options, and then click the Style tab.

To reset the options on the Style tab to their default values, click Restore Defaults.

Formatting

The options that specify how candidates are inserted in your query editor are grouped together under Formatting.

Qualify object names

You can set SQL Prompt so that it qualifies object names with the owner name (or schema name) when you select a database object from the candidate list; to do this, select the Qualify object names check box.

For example, if you select the column FirstName and then in the FROM clause you select the table Contact, SQL Prompt qualifies the table name with the owner (or schema) name Person.

select [FirstName]
FROM [Person].[Contact]

Qualify column names

You can set SQL Prompt so that it qualifies column names when you select a column from the candidate list.

For example, if you select the column FirstName from the table Contact, SQL Prompt qualifies the column name with the table name and the owner (or schema) name.

SELECT [Person].[Contact].[FirstName]
FROM [Contact]

To do this, select the Qualify column names check box.

Note that when you select this option, SQL Prompt qualifies:

columns you insert using the column picker
columns in column lists you expand by pressing TAB after SELECT *

SQL Prompt always qualifies column names when you select join conditions from the candidate list.

Surround with brackets [ ]

By default, SQL Prompt surrounds identifiers with brackets. For example:

SELECT *
FROM [Contact]

If you do not want SQL Prompt to surround identifiers, clear the Surround with brackets [ ] check box.

Insert parentheses for built-in functions and data types

By default, SQL Prompt automatically inserts parentheses when you select a built-in function from the candidate list. For example, if you type SELECT and choose MAX from the candidate list, SQL Prompt inserts the opening and closing parentheses ready for you to select the required column.

Similarly, if you type DECLARE @MyVariable and select VARCHAR from the candidate list, SQL Prompt inserts the parentheses ready for you to specify the length.

If you do not want SQL Prompt to automatically insert parentheses, clear the Insert parentheses for built-in functions and data types check box.

Case Settings

You can set SQL Prompt so that it automatically changes the case of Reserved keywords, Built-in functions or Built-in data types as you type.

You set the casing options as follows:

Force lowercase so that SQL Prompt changes the case to lowercase
Force UPPERCASE so that SQL Prompt changes the case to uppercase
Leave as is so that SQL Prompt does not modify the case