Product articles SQL Prompt
Avoid use of the MONEY and SMALLMONEY datatypes (BP022)
Use of the MONEY and SMALLMONEY datatypes can lead to unintentional loss of precision, due to rounding errors, during calculations. It is generally far better to use the DECIMAL, a.k.a. NUMERIC, type. Read moreWhen to use the SELECT…INTO statement (PE003)
SELECT…INTO is a useful shortcut for development work, especially for creating temporary tables. However, it no longer has a clear performance advantage and should be avoided in production code. It is better to use a CREATE TABLE statement, where you can specify constraints and datatypes in advance, making it less likely that inconsistencies will sneak into the data. Read moreBeyond Formatting: Improving SQL Code using SQL Prompt Actions
How to qualify object names, standardize the use of aliases, and make other instant changes that improve the quality and performance of your SQL code. Read moreDriving up database coding standards using SQL Prompt
A strategic view of how a development team can use SQL Prompt to establish and share coding standards, through code analysis rules, formatting styles and code snippets. Read moreConsider using [NOT] EXISTS instead of [NOT] IN with a subquery (PE019)
Phil Factor explains why you should prefer use of EXISTS over IN, when comparing data sets using a subquery. While there is no longer any significant performance advantage, using NOT EXISTS will avoid unexpected results when the subquery’s source data contains NULL values. Read moreMisuse of the scalar user-defined function as a constant (PE017)
The incorrect use of a scalar UDF as a global database constant is a major performance problem and should be investigated whenever SQL Prompt spots this in any production code. Unless you need to use these global constants in computed columns or constraints, it is generally safer and more convenient to store the value in an inline table-valued function, or to use a view. Read more
Customizing the SQL Prompt built-in snippets: a better ALTER TABLE ADD (ata) snippet
Phil Factor improves SQL Prompt's built-in ALTER TABLE ADD (ata) snippet so that it enforces certain coding standards, such as specifying whether the column acceptsNULL values, and ensuring the new column is well-documented. Read more
Avoid T-SQL Technical Debt using SQL Prompt Code Analysis
SQL Prompt can help prevent the build-up of technical debt in your database code. It alerts the team immediately to issues that might not prevent your code from working as expected, but could eventually cause problems with performance, or maintenance, or even security. Read more
How to reformat a database in one operation
Inherited a database from another team? Changed your team policy on the way that you format SQL? What's to stop you formatting the code of an entire database nicely, when you're developing it? Manually, the process can take longer than you expect. Phil Factor demonstrates a simple 3-step approach to reformatting a whole database , in a single operation, using SQL Compare and SQL Prompt. Read moreRedgate Hub
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